The Sun Maid Part 18

"But you mustn't keep me, Gaspar boy. Mother Mercy is terribly hurried this morning, and now, for some reason, Other Mother has stopped helping and has gone home to the tepee. If I don't work, it will about crush her down, Mercy says."

"Hang Mercy! There. I don't mean that. I wish you wouldn't always look so scared when I get mad. I am mad to-day, Kit. Mad clear through.

I've got to be around amongst folks, too, for a while; but the first minute you get, you come to that pile of logs near Wahneenah's place, and I'll have something to tell you."

"No you won't! No you won't! I know it already. I heard father Abel talking. There is to be a horse race, after the harvesting and the supper are over. There is a new man, or family, moved into the neighborhood and he is a horse trader. I heard all about it, sir!"

"You heard that? Did you hear anything else? About Wahneenah and money?"

"Only what she told me herself"; repeating the Indian woman's words.

"Then she knows, poor thing!" cried Gaspar, indignantly.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HARVESTING.

Kitty had no time to ask further explanation. Already there was an ox team driving up to the cabin and, scanning the prairies, she saw others on the way, so merely stopped to cry, eagerly:

"They've come! The folks have come!" before she hastened in with the b.u.t.ter and to see if she could in any way help Mercy dress for the great occasion.

She was just in time, for the plump housewife was vainly struggling to fasten the b.u.t.tons of a new lilac calico gown which she had made:

"A teeny tiny mite too tight. I didn't know I was gettin' so fat, I really didn't."

"Oh! it's all right, dear Mother Mercy. It looked just lovely that day you tried it on. I'll help you. You're all trembling and warm. That's the reason it bothers."

She was so deft and earnest in her efforts that Mercy submitted without protest, and in this manner succeeded in "making herself fit to be seen by folks" about the moment that they arrived to observe.

Then everything else was forgotten, amid the greetings and gayety that followed. For out of what purported to be a task the whole community was making a frolic.

While the men repaired to the golden fields to reap the grain the women hurried to the smooth gra.s.sy place where the harvest-dinner was to be enjoyed out-of-doors.

Most of the vehicles--which brought whole families, down to the babe in long clothes--were drawn by oxen, though some of the pioneers owned fine horses and had driven these, groomed with extraordinary care and destined, later on, to be entered in the races which should conclude the business and fun of the day.

Both horses and oxen were, for the present, led out to graze upon a fine pasture and were supposed to be under the care, while there, of the young people. These were, however, more deeply engaged in playing games than in watching, and for once their stern parents ignored the carelessness.

"Oh, such bright faces!" cried the Sun Maid to Mercy. "And yours is the happiest of all, even though you did have such a terrible time to get ready. See, they are fixing the tables out of the wagon boards, and every woman has brought her own dishes. They're making fires, too, some of the bigger boys. What for, Mother Mercy?"

"Oh! don't bother me now. It's to boil the coffee on, and to bake the jonny-cakes. 'Journey-cakes,' they used to call them. Mis' Waldron, she's mixin' some this minute. Step acrost to her table an' watch. A girl a'most ten years old ought to learn all kinds of housekeepin'."

Kitty was nothing loath. It was, indeed, a treat to see with what skill the comely settler of the wilderness mixed and tossed and patted her jonny-cake, famous all through that countryside for lightness and delicacy; and as she finished each batch of dough, and slapped it down upon the board where it was to cook, she would hand it over to Kitty's charge, with the injunction:

"Carry that to one of the fires, an' stand it up slantin', so 's to give it a good chance to bake even. Watch 'em all, too; an' as soon as they are a nice brown on one side, either call me to turn 'em to the other, or else do it yourself. As Mercy Smith says, a girl can't begin too early to housekeep."

"But this is out-door keep, isn't it?" laughed the Sun Maid, as, with a board upon each arm, she bounded away to place the cakes as she had been directed.

In ordinary, Mercy Smith was not a lavish woman; but on such a day as this she threw thrift to the wind and, brought out the best she could procure for the refreshment of her guests; and everybody knows how much better food tastes when eaten out-of-doors than in regular fashion beside a table. The dinner was a huge success; and even Gaspar, whom Kitty's loving watchful eyes had noticed was more than usually serious that day, so far relaxed his indignation as to partake of the feast with the other visiting lads.

But, when it was over and the women were gathering up the dishes, preparatory to cleansing them for their homeward journey, the child came to where Mercy stood among a group of women, and asked:

"Shall I wash the dishes, Mother Mercy?"

"No, sissy, you needn't. We grown folks'll fix that. If you want something to do, an' are tired of out-doors, you can set right down yonder an' rock Mis' Waldron's baby to sleep. By and by, Abel's got a job for you will suit you to a T!"

Kitty was by no means tired of out-doors, but a baby to attend was even a greater rarity than a holiday; so she sat down beside the cradle, which its mother had brought in her great wagon, and gently swayed the little occupant into a quiet slumber. Then she began to listen to the voices about her, and presently caught a sentence which puzzled her.

"Fifty dollars is a pile of money. It's more 'n ary Indian ever was worth. Let alone a sulky squaw."

"Yes it is. An' I need it. I need it dreadful," a.s.sented Mercy, forgetful of the Sun Maid's presence in the room.

"Well, I, for one, should be afraid of her," observed another visitor, clattering the knives she was wiping. "I wouldn't have a squaw livin'

so near my door, an' that's a fact."

Kitty now understood that these people were speaking of Wahneenah, and listened intently.

"Oh! I ain't afraid of her. Not that. But I never did like her, nor she me. She's sullen an' top-lofty. Why, you'd think I wasn't no better than the dirt under her feet, to see her sometimes. She was good to the childern, I'll 'low, afore me an' Abel took 'em in. But that's four years ago, an' I've cared for 'em ever since. Sometimes I think she's regular bewitched 'em, they dote on her so. If you believe me, they'll listen to her leastest word sooner 'n a whole hour of my talk!"

"I shouldn't be surprised," quietly commented one young matron, who was jogging her own baby to sleep by tipping her chair violently back and forth upon its four legs.

Continued Mercy:

"She wouldn't eat a meal of victuals with me if she was starvin'. Yet I've treated her Christian. Only this mornin' I give her leave to fry cakes for herself, an' even have some syrup, but she wouldn't touch to do it. Yes; fifty dollars of good government money would be more to me 'n she is, an' she'd be took care of, I hear, along with all the rest is caught. It's time the country was rid of the Indians an' white folks had a chance. There's all the while some ma.s.sacrein' an'

fightin' goin' on somewhere."

"Oh! I guess the government just puts 'em under lock an' key, in a guard-house, or some such place, till it gets enough to send away off West somewheres. I'd get the fifty dollars, if I was you, and march her off. She'll be puttin' notions into the youngsters' heads first you see an' makin' trouble."

"I don't know just how to manage it. Abel, he's queer an' sot. He's gettin' tired, though, of some things, himself."

"Manage it easy enough. Like fallin' off a log. My man could do you that good turn. She could be took along in our wagon as far as the Agency. Then, next time he comes by with his grist on his road to mill, he could fetch you the money. I'd do it, sure. I only wish I had an Indian to catch as handy as she is." Having given this advice, Mercy's guest sat down.

There was a rush of small feet and the Sun Maid confronted them. Her blue eyes blazed with indignation, her face was white, and her hair, which the day's activity had loosed from its braid, streamed backward as if every fibre quivered with life. With heaving breast and clenched hands, she faced them all.

"Oh, how dare you! How dare you! You are talking of my Wahneenah; of selling her, of selling her like a pig or a horse. Even you, Mrs.

Jordan, though she nursed your little one till it got well, and only told you the truth: that if you'd look after it more and visit less it wouldn't have the croup so often. You didn't like to hear her say it, and you do not love her. But she is good, good, good! There is n.o.body so good as she is. And no harm shall come to her. I tell you. I say it. I, the Sun Maid, whom the Great Spirit sent to her out of the sky.

I will go and tell her at once. She shall run away. She shall not be sold--never, never, never!"

The women remained dumfounded where she left them, watching her skim the distance between cabin and wigwam, scarcely touching the earth with her bare feet in her haste to warn her friend of this new danger which threatened her and her race. For it was quite true, this matter that had been discussed. The Indians had given so much trouble in the spa.r.s.ely settled country that the authorities had offered a price for their capture; and it was this price which money-loving Mercy coveted.

Like a flash of a bird's wing, Kitty had darted into the lodge and out again, with an agony of fear upon her features; and then she saw Gaspar beckoning.

As she reached him he motioned silence and drew her away into the shadow of the forest, that just there fringed the clearing behind the tepee.

"But--Wahneenah's gone!" she whispered.

"Don't worry. She's safe enough for the present. Listen to me. Do you remember the horse-racing last year?"