A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST.
"She is a spirit. I know that nothing can harm her. Yet many
things can harm me. I have no desire to suffer any further anxiety.
Therefore--this. My Girl-Child, my White Papoose, come here."
The Sun Maid reluctantly obeyed. It was the morning after her perilous
ride on the back of an untamed horse and her joyful reunion with
Gaspar, her old playmate of the Fort. The two were now just without
the wigwam of Wahneenah, sitting clasped in each other's arms, as if
fearful that a fresh separation awaited them should they once
relinquish this tight hold of one another; and it was in much the same
feeling that the foster-mother regarded them.
"But why, Other Mother? I do love my Gaspar boy. I did know him
always."
"You've known me two years, Kitty," corrected the truthful lad. "But I
suppose that is as long as you can remember. You're such a baby."
"How old is the Sun Maid--as you white people reckon ages?" asked
Wahneenah.
"She is five years old. Her birthday was on the Fourth of July. We had
a celebration. Our Captain fired as many rounds of ammunition as she
was years old. The mothers made her a cake, with sugar on the top, and
with five little candles they made themselves on purpose, and colored
with strawberry juice. Oh, surely, there never was such a cake in all
the world as they made for our 'baby!'" cried the lad, forgetting for
the moment present troubles in this delightful memory.
"Well, there are other women who can make other cakes," said
Wahneenah, with ready jealousy.
"Oh, but an Indian cake--" began Gaspar, then stopped abruptly,
frightened at his own boldness.
Wahneenah smiled. For small Kitty was swift to see the change in her
playmate's face, and her own caught, for an instant, a reflection of
its fear. The foster-mother wished to banish this fear.
"Wahneenah likes those who say their thoughts out straight and clear.
She is the sister of the Man-Who-Cannot-Lie. It is the crime of the
pale-faces that they will lie, and always. Wherefore, they are always
in danger. Take warning. Learn to be truth-tellers, like the
Pottawatomies, and you will have no trouble."
A quick retort rose to Gaspar's lips, but he subdued it. Then he
watched what was being done to Kitty, and a faint smile brightened his
face, that had been so far too gloomy for his years. Wahneenah had
made a long rope of horsehair, gaily adorned with beads and trinkets,
and was fastening it about the Sun Maid's waist. The little one
submitted merrily, at first; but when it flashed through her mind that
she was thus being made a prisoner, being "tied up," she burst into a
paroxysm of tears and temper that astonished the others, and even
herself.
"I will not be 'tied up!' I was not a naughty girl. When I am bad, I
will be punished, and I will not cry nor stamp my feet. But when I am
good, I will be free--free! There shall nobody, nobody do this to me!
Not any single body. Gaspar, will you let her do it?"
The boy's timidity flew to the winds. His dark eyes flashed with
indignation, and his heavy brows contracted in a fierce scowl. At that
instant, he appeared much older than he really was, and he advanced
upon Wahneenah with upraised hand and threatening gesture.
She might easily have picked him up and tossed him out of the way; but
there is nothing an Indian woman admires more greatly than courage. In
this she does not differ from her pale-faced sisters, and, instead of
resenting Gaspar's rudeness, she smiled upon him.
"That is right, Dark-Eye. It is a warrior's duty to protect his
women. You are not yet a warrior, nor is the Sun Maid yet a woman, but
as you begin so you will continue. Hear me. Let us make compact. I was
fastening the child for her own good, not in punishment. Is that a
white mother's custom? Well, this is better. Let us three pledge our
word: each to watch over and protect the other so long as our lives
last. The Great Spirit sent the Sun Maid into my arms, by the hands of
Black Partridge, my brother and my chief. The meanest Indian in
Muck-otey-pokee brought you to the village, and the meanest boy to my
wigwam. But when the chief saw you, he took you by the hand, and gave
you, also, to me. A triple bond is the strongest. Shall we clasp hand
upon it?"
It was a curious proceeding for one so much older than these children,
but it was in profoundest earnest. Wahneenah recognized in Gaspar a
representative of a race whose wisdom exceeded that of her own, even
if, as she believed, its morality was of a lower standard. But her
brother and the other braves had already told her of his great courage
on the day before, and of his wonderful skill with the bow and arrow.
He had done a man's work, even though a stripling, and she would
accord him a man's honor. As for the Sun Maid, despite her very
human-like temper, she was, of course, a being above mortal, and
therefore fit to "compact" with anybody, even had it been the case
with one as venerable as old Katasha. So she felt that there was
nothing derogatory to her own dignity in her request.
Gaspar fixed his piercing eyes upon Wahneenah's face, and studied it
carefully.
The penetration of a child is keen, and not easily deceived. What he
read in the Indian woman's unflinching gaze satisfied him, for after
this brief delay, he lay his thin boyish hand within the extended palm
in entire trust. Of course, what Gaspar did Kitty was bound to do. To
her it was a game, and her own plump little fingers closed about the
backs of the lad's with a mischievous pinch. Already her anger had
disappeared, and her sunny face was dimpling with laughter.
"Kitty was dreadful bad, wasn't she? She wouldn't be tied up first,
because she wasn't naughty. Now she has been bad as bad, she did stamp
and scream so; and she may be tied, if Other Mother wishes. Do you,
nice Other Mother? It is a very pretty string. It wouldn't hurt, I
guess."
But Wahneenah's desire to fasten her ward to the lodge-pole had
vanished. She would far rather trust the true, loving eyes of the boy
Gaspar than the stoutest horsehair rope ever woven.
"We will tie nobody. But hear me, my children, for you are both mine
now. In this village are many friends and more enemies. Braves and
their families, from other villages and other branches of our tribe,
have raised their tepees here. It is easier for them to do this than
to build villages of their own, and we are hospitable people. When a
guest comes to us, he must stay until he chooses to go away again, and
there are none who would bid them depart. Some of other tribes than
our own are also here. It is they who are stirring up much mischief.
They are giving the Black Partridge anxiety; they will not be wise.
They will not learn that their only safety lies in friendship with
the white faces. Therefore the heart of our chief is heavy with
foreboding. He has the inner vision. To him all things are clear that
to us are quite invisible. This is his command to me, ere he departed
in the dawn of this day, to seek our friends who were of the Fort, and
help them in their need, if need again arises. Listen to the words of
Black Partridge:
"'Have these white children trained to ride as an Indian rides. The
boy Gaspar is to be given the black gelding, Tempest, for his very
own. I shall see the man who owns it, and I will pay his cost. The
White Snowbird belongs to the Sun Maid. Let nobody else dare touch the
mare, except to handle it in care. The day is coming when they will
need to ride fast and far, and with more skill than on yesterday. The
Snake-Who-Leaps is the best horseman in our tribe. I have bidden him
come to this tepee when the sun crosses the meridian. He is friendly
to these prisoners, because they are mine, and he will guide them
well.'"
Gaspar's eyes had opened to their widest extent. The words he had
heard seemed incredible; yet he was shrewd and practical by nature,
and he promptly inquired:
"Why? Why will the Indian chief bestow so rich a gift upon his white
boy-prisoner? For if he buys Tempest from the Captain he will have to
pay big money. There isn't another like the black gelding this side
that far-away Kentucky where he was bred."
"Hear me, Gaspar Keith; prisoner, if you will. But I would rather call
you an adopted son of the Black Partridge, and by your new name of
Dark-Eye. This is the reason: In these troubles which are coming, you
may not only serve yourself, the Sun Maid, and me, by having as your
own the gelding Tempest, but you may help the helpless, also. In this
one village of Muck-otey-pokee are many old and many very young. The
Spotted Adder was the oldest man I ever knew, and though he has died
just now, there are others almost of his age. They ought to die, too,
and not burden better people. But nobody dies who should while those
who should not are snatched away like a feather on the breeze."
Here Wahneenah became absorbed in her own reflections, and was so long
silent that Kitty stole her arms about the woman's neck and kissed the
dark face to remind her that they were still listening.
"Yes, beloved, Child of the Sunshine and Love! You do well to call me
back. Let the dead rest. You are the living. I will remember only
you," and she laid the little one against her heart.
"Gaspar, too, Other Mother," suggested the loyal little maid.
But Gaspar was quite able to speak for himself.
"No decent white person would wish the old to die!" he exclaimed,
hotly. "There was a grandmother at our Fort, and she was the best
loved, the best cared for, of all the women. That is what a white boy
thinks, even if he is an Indian's prisoner!"
"Ugh! So? You are an odd youth, Dark-Eye. As timid as a wild pigeon
one minute, and the next--flouting your chief's sister."
"I don't mean that, Wahneenah. I--I only--I don't just know what I do
mean, except that it seems cowardly to wish the old should die. If you
should grow very, very old some day, and Kitty and I should not be--be
nice to you, then you would understand what I feel, if I cannot say it
rightly."
Wahneenah laughed.
"Your halting speech makes me happy, Dark-Eye. Kitty and you and I;
still all together, even when age shall have dimmed my sight and
dulled my hearing. It is well. I am satisfied. But hear me. Herein
lies the trouble: when folks are young they forget that they will ever
be old. That is a mistake. One should remember that youth flies away,
fast, fast. They should teach themselves wisdom. They should learn to
be skilled in the things which will make them lovely when they are
old. For, despite your judgment, there are some among us whom we would
keep till all generations are past. Katasha, the One-Who-Knows; and
the Snake-Who-Leaps--why, he is older even than Katasha. Yet there is
nobody can ride a horse, or shoot a flying bird, or bring in the game
that he can. He is the friend of his chief. He is the most honored one
in our whole village. Why? Because he makes few promises, and breaks
none. He has never lowered his manhood by drinking the fire-water that
addles one's brains and sets the limbs a-tremble. He has talked little
and done much. He is One-To-Be-Trusted. That was his name in his
youth, when he began to practise all his virtues. The other name came
afterward, because of the swift punishment he can also inflict upon
his enemies. You would do well to pattern after your teacher,
Dark-Eye."
Gaspar listened respectfully; but this sounded so very much like the
"lectures" he had received at the Fort that it had less originality
than most of Wahneenah's conversations; and, besides that, he had just
espied, approaching over the village street, a tall Indian leading the
black gelding and Snowbird. Behind this man walked Osceolo; but
greatly changed from the bullying youth whom Gaspar had met on the
previous day.
Whatever had occurred in the closed tepee of Black Partridge, when its
door flaps fell behind himself and the lad he had ordered to accompany
him, nobody knew; but, whatever it was, Osceolo was certainly--at
least for the time being--a changed young person.
He walked along behind the Snake-Who-Leaps in a meek, subdued manner
quite new to him, but which immediately impressed Dark-Eye as being a
vast improvement on his former bearing. He paused, when ordered to
"Halt!" by the old man, as if he had been stricken into a wooden
image, and only when requested to take the Snowbird's bridle did he
make any other motion.
"Why, Osceolo! What's the matter?" asked the Sun Maid, running toward
him in surprise.
But he did not answer, and she was hastily snatched back by the strong
hand of the foster-mother.
"The Girl-Child speaks to none who is in disgrace."
"But I will speak to anybody who is unhappy, Other Mother! I cannot
help that, can I? One day, Osceolo was all laughing and clapping; and
now--now he looks like Peter Wilson did after his father had whipped
him with a musket. Did anybody whip you with a musket, poor, poor
Osceolo?"
Not a sign from the disgraced youth.
"Has you lost your tongue, too? Well as your eyes, that you can't look
up? Never mind, Osceolo. Kitty is sorry for you. Some day Kitty will
let you ride her beau'ful White Snowbird; some day."
"The Sun Maid will first learn to ride the Snowbird, herself,"
corrected the Snake-Who-Leaps. "She will begin now."
With unquestioning confidence, a confidence that Gaspar did not share,
she ran back to the old warrior's side, and stood on tiptoe to be
lifted into place.
"Ugh!" he grunted in satisfaction. "That is well. The one who has no
fear has already conquered the wildest animal. But the White Snowbird
is not wild. She has been given an evil name, and it has clung to her
as evil always clings," and the One-To-Be-Trusted turned to give his
silent attendant a meaning glance. But Osceolo had not yet raised his
gaze from the ground, and the reproof fell pointless.
Nobody had observed that, from another direction, another youth had
quietly led up a beautiful chestnut horse, whose cream-colored mane
and tail would have made it a conspicuous object anywhere; but
Wahneenah had expected this addition to their equestrian party and, as
she turned to look for it, exclaimed in pleasure at its prompt
appearance.
The Snake-Who-Leaps heard her ejaculation, and evinced his disgust.
"Ugh! Is it to teach a lot of women and a worthless pale-faced lad
that I have left the comfort of my own lodge this hot summer day?"
"The old forget. It was long ago, when I was no bigger than the Sun
Maid here, that the One-To-Be-Trusted took me behind him on a wild
ride over the prairie. It was the only lesson he ever gave--or needed
to give--_me_. I will show him that I am still young enough to
remember!" cried Wahneenah, with all the gayety of girlhood, and with
so complete a change in her appearance that it was easy to see how she
had come to be named The Happy.
Even before the teacher had settled the Sun Maid in her tiny blanket
saddle, Wahneenah had sprung upon the chestnut's back. As she touched
it, a clear, determined, if very youthful voice, shouted behind her:
"I am a white man! No Indian shall ever teach me a thing that I can
learn for myself!"
For suddenly Gaspar remembered the wrongs he had suffered at the
red men's hands, and leaped to Tempest's back unaided. Another
instant, and the trio of riders dashed away from Muck-otey-pokee in a
mad rush that left their disgruntled instructor in doubt which was the
better pupil of them all.
"Who begins slow finishes fast; but who begins fast may never live to
finish slow," he remarked, sententiously; then observing that Osceolo
had, for the first time, raised his eyes, he promptly laid a heavy
hand upon the youth's shoulder and wheeled him about.
"To my wigwam--march!"
And Osceolo marched--exactly as if all his limbs were sticks and his
joints mechanical.
"Ugh! So? Like the jointed dolls of the papooses, eh? Very good. Keep
at it. From now till those three return, dead or alive, my fine young
warrior, you shall be my pupil. You have set me the pace you like. You
may keep at it. From the locust tree east of my lodge to the pawpaw on
the west, as the branch swings in the wind, so shall you swing. Ugh!
May they ride far and long. One--two--commence!"
It was noonday when he began that weary, weary automatic "step,
step"; but when the last rays of the sun had disappeared beyond the
prairie, Osceolo was still enduring his discipline, and making his
pendulum-like journey from locust-tree to pawpaw, from pawpaw to
locust. His head swam, his sight dimmed, but still sat stolid
Snake-Who-Leaps in the entrance of his tepee, "instructing" the
only pupil fate had left him.