Edwin
In one of the little houses of the village of the "Make-believe
White-men" there sat on the floor of the room, which served as parlor,
kitchen, dining, and bedroom, a man and a woman. There was but one
window to the room, and, the weather being warm, the door stood wide
open to let in more light for the workers within. The man was cutting
with great care a large piece of moistened rawhide into narrow strips
to be braided for a long lariat, and from time to time he softly
whistled a tune that was running through his head. Directly under the
window sat the woman; around her were strewn little workbags, awls,
bits of deer-skin, and shreds of sinew. Patiently she worked, pushing
the point of the sharp awl through the edges of the leggings she
was making, and drawing the finely twisted sinew thread through the
perforation.
"We are the only ones in the village who haven't sent any children to
the House of Teaching," said the woman, without looking up from her
sewing, continuing a conversation the two were having. "Ma-wa'-da-ne
has sent his boy, the only one he has. The man is lame, you know, and
needs help; yet he wanted the boy to go, because he thinks some good
will come of it to the child in the future. Then look at your friend
E-sta'-ma-za, a man of great knowledge and foresight, he has sent his
only boy and three daughters. There must be some good in it; we ought
to send one of our boys at least."
The man took up a round stone and whetted his knife; then, as he felt
the edge with his thumb, he replied, "I don't want the little one to
go. Why don't you send the two big boys; they're hardly ever home
anyway, and they might as well be at the house of the White-chests as
anywhere else. What would the house be without the little one? We'd be
very lonely, at least I'd be."
"I am just as fond of him as you are, and would miss him just as
much; but he is the brightest of them all," said the woman, rising
and stirring something that was boiling and sputtering in a pot on
the stove. "He could learn faster than either of the older boys," she
continued. "Before many years have gone, our dealings will be mostly
with the white people who are coming to mingle with us; and, to have
relations with them of any kind, some of us must learn their language
and familiarize ourselves with their customs. That is what these men
who send their children to the White-chests are looking forward to, and
they love their boys as much as we do ours."
There was silence for some moments. The man fastened the ends of the
rawhide strips to a peg in the floor and began to braid them. At length
he said, "Where is the boy; he hasn't been in all the morning. When do
you want him to go?"
"He might as well go now, to-day, the sooner the better. Of course he
's down by the creek with his little bow and arrows."
"Well, wife, I wish you would go and call him. I don't want these
strips to dry on me while I am braiding them."
The woman went to the banks of the little stream that ran by the
village, and called in a shrill voice, "Oo-ma'-a-be! Oo-ma'-a-be!"
"I'm coming!" shouted a bareheaded, black-eyed little boy, just as he
shot a blue-joint grass arrow at a frog that had poked his head above
the surface of the water to see what was going on in the outer world.
Forgetting the call, the lad went stealthily on up the stream with
another arrow strung, looking for other frogs that might be hunting for
flies or mosquitoes, or enjoying the kisses of the warm sunshine in
some pleasant nook.
"What can the boy be doing?" said the woman to herself, then she called
again, this time emphasizing the first syllable of the name to indicate
that she was losing patience, "Oo'-ma-a-be!"
With reluctant steps the boy made his way toward his mother, peering
as he went into the tall grass to see if a grasshopper or any other
creature might be exposing itself to the arrows of a sport-loving lad.
"Why did you not come when I first called you?" asked the woman as she
took the child by the hand and led him with quickened steps toward the
little house.
As the mother and son entered, the father looked up with a pleasant
smile, and addressing the boy said, "Your mother went to call you
because she wants us to go to the house of the White-chests, where you
are to stay and learn to write. Now wash your hands and face, and make
yourself look nice, so they will be pleased with you; then we will go."
The mother had the water ready, and began scrubbing the face and neck
of the lad, while the candidate for scholarship was pressing his lips
tightly together and squinting his eyes to exclude the soap that
persisted in getting into them. Then followed the brushing of the hair,
which was equally irksome to the boy, and he unconsciously leaned
farther and farther away until he was pulled to again by the fond
parent.
When both face and hair shone, the mother kissed her boy and announced
to her husband that the child was ready. The father rose to go with
him, but the boy held back.
"What is it?" asked the father; "are you not willing to go?"
"I am willing to go," answered Oo-ma'-a-be, "but I want to put on my
embroidered moccasins and leggings and my little buffalo robe."
The husband and wife looked at each other smiling, and let the
youngster have his own way, so he was decked out in his gorgeous
costume. He folded himself up in his robe, which was beautifully
ornamented with porcupine quills of exquisite colors, he twisted his
body and neck to see if he looked well, then said he was ready to go.
In the school-room a class of big boys and girls were learning to read
in concert:--
"The boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but he had fled."
Again and again the teacher made them read the lines, but each time
some one would either lag behind or read faster than the others. While
this was going on I was busy with my spelling lesson, as my class came
after the one now hard at work with the boy "on the burning deck."
There was a click; I raised my eyes and looked toward the door; it
slowly opened, then a tall man and a boy silently entered. I recognized
them at once; the man was a friend of my father and the lad one of
my playmates on my weekly visits home. The class on the floor was
dismissed with a lecture on reading, and Gray-beard turned to call,
"Next class," when he discovered the man and boy sitting on a bench
near the door.
"How do you do, Wa-hon'-e-ga?" said Gray-beard, approaching the Indian
with outstretched hand.
"Ka-gae'-ha!" (Friend) responded the Indian, his face brightening.
Then in a low tone he called me to him and said, "I have brought your
grandfather here to stay with you. Be as good to each other as you have
always been, and try to learn the language of the White-chests."
The boy was a distant relative, and, following the peculiar system of
kinship among the Indians, there was no impropriety in my addressing
him as my grandfather, although we preferred to call each other friend.
"What does Wa-hon'-e-ga want?" asked Gray-beard, putting his hand on my
shoulder.
"My friend," replied the Indian, looking with a kindly smile into the
face of the teacher, "my wife wishes her son, this boy, to learn to
speak the language of the Big-knives, [English] so I have come with
him. We have brought him up with great care, and I think he will give
you no trouble."
"Tell him," said Gray-beard, "I am very glad he has brought the boy,
and we will do our best for him."
The Indian turned and with silent dignity left the room.
"Now, children," said Gray-beard, taking out the school register and
looking at us, "we have a new boy here, and we must select a good name
for him; what have you to suggest?"
We promptly called him Edwin M. Stanton, and he was registered by that
name.
Brush and I were detailed to take Edwin to the store-room and fit him
with a new suit of clothes. When he was dressed; we tied up his fine
Indian costume in a neat bundle to be returned to his father.
At the supper-table Edwin and I sat together. I showed him how to
bow his head when the blessing was asked, and to turn his plate. He
silently followed my whispered instructions, and was very quiet while
supper was going on, but during the religious exercises which followed,
when we dropped on our knees, he became very anxious to know why we did
so. He shuffled a good deal in his position, and after a while stood up
and looked around. I pulled him down, and he demanded out loud, "What
are we hiding for? This is the way we do when we are hiding in the
grass."
I gave him a good dig in the ribs. "That hurts!" he cried. I whispered
to him to be quiet, but before long he was fidgeting again. Just as the
superintendent lowered his voice at an earnest passage in his prayer
Edwin spoke out again, in a louder tone than before, "I've got a dog;
he can catch rabbits!"
Gray-beard lifted his head, and the superintendent paused in his
fervent appeal and looked toward us; he rapped with his knuckles on
the table, and said, in a severe tone, "Boys, you must be silent and
listen when I pray."
I whispered to Edwin that he must keep still until we got out.
As we were going to bed that night Edwin said, "Ka-gae'-ha [Friend],
let you and me sleep together; I don't want to sleep with any one else."
Lester too wanted to sleep with me; so it was arranged among us that
Brush and Warren should have the double bed, and Edwin, Lester, and I
were to have the wide bed for three.
After we had settled down, Edwin began talking, "When we finished
eating," he said, "we turned around and the old man began to talk, then
you all sang. I like to hear you sing; you've got a good voice. Then
we went down on our knees, just as though we were hiding in the grass;
what did we do that for? The old man talked a long time; was he telling
a story? I know a great many of them; I know one about a dog. He was a
man, but he was turned into a dog. I'll tell it to you."
I didn't say anything, so Edwin began:
"Far back in the earliest times there dwelt in a little village a man
and his wife. They had only one child living, a son whom they loved to
adoration. He was so handsome a youth that whenever he walked through
the village all eyes were turned upon him with admiration. One day
he asked his mother to make him a separate tent. When it was done
he went into it, and there spent four days and nights in solitude,
neither eating nor drinking. Then he came out and spoke to his father
and mother and said, "I am going away to be gone a long time, perhaps
never to return. I go to meet the White-swan, the magician who sent my
brothers to the abode of shadows, and, in conflict, with magic opposing
his magic, I will destroy him or die as my brothers have died." The
father and mother, remembering the fate of their other children, wept
and pleaded with their son not to leave them, but he was determined to
go.
The young man travelled many days, when one morning he beheld a maiden
sitting on the brow of a hill. He went to her and asked why she sat
there all alone. Without lifting her eyes, modesty forbidding her to
return his gaze, the maiden replied, "I go to marry Hi_n_-hpe'-ah-gre."
The youth was seized with fear lest the young woman might be the
White-swan transformed to beguile him; but being struck by her maidenly
bearing, and becoming enamoured of her beauty, he turned aside from
suspicion and permitted himself to be persuaded that the fair creature
before him was in reality one of his own kind. And so he spoke and
said, "I am he, Hi_n_-hpe'-ah-gre, the man whom you seek to follow." In
reply the maiden said, "It makes my heart throb with delight to meet
and to see with my own eyes the man I am to marry. Sit down and rest
your head in my lap, and when the weariness of travel has left you, I
shall follow you wherever you may lead." Joy filling the heart of the
youth, and no longer troubled with misgivings, he laid his head upon
the lap of the maiden and soon fell fast asleep.
"Tha! Tha!" exclaimed the woman, using a word of magic, and four times,
in quick succession, she pulled the ears of the young man. He awoke
with a start and attempted to rise, but a transformation had taken
place, instead of a man standing upright, he found himself to be a
four-footed beast. His body had changed, but his reason was still that
of a man. He turned to see his companion, and lo! he beheld, not the
beautiful maiden in whose lap he had fallen asleep, but one who looked
down upon him with contempt, and whom he knew to be the White-swan. The
thought that he had been outwitted came to the young man like a flash,
and as swiftly his magic word returned to his mind. He tried to utter
it, but he only yelped and gave a dismal howl like that of a dog. A
cringing, mangy, lop-eared dog, he now followed the White-swan and--Are
you asleep?"
I was almost asleep, so I did not answer him, then he became silent.
When I awoke Edwin was gone; I called him but he did not answer. Brush
and I went downstairs and called softly in the school-room, but the boy
was not there, then we went to the large door of the hall and found it
unbolted. We returned to the dormitory and went to bed, and I soon
fell asleep again.
Toward morning I was awakened by strange sounds on the stairs leading
up to our dormitory. I recognized the footsteps of a human being, but
there were other footsteps that were like those of a four-footed beast.
They approached my bed; they came near, and a voice said in Indian in a
loud whisper, "Lie down, lie down!"
"Is it you, Oo-ma'-a-be?" I asked.
"Yes, I've been after my dog," he answered, getting into bed with his
clothes on.
"Get up and undress; you can't sleep with your clothes on! What did you
go after the dog for?"
"I wanted you to see him, and I thought we'd keep him here. He is a
fine dog; he can swim too!"
"But were you not afraid? It was dark."
"I forgot all about being afraid, and I went right by that big grave
too,--the one they say a ghost comes out of and chases people. I ran,
though, all the way to my house. The dog was lying near the door; he
was so glad to see me he almost knocked me down."
It was nearly morning, and we went right off to sleep. Suddenly we were
aroused by a furious barking. Brush, Edwin, and I sprang out of bed,
and rushed for the dog that with legs spread was defending the top of
the stairs.
"Boys, what have you up there?" called Gray-beard from the foot.
"Edwin went after his dog last night," answered Brush. "He wants to
keep it here."
"He does, eh! Will it bite?"
"No, it won't bite; you can come up."