The Sun Maid Part 27

"But about Gaspar, Mercy. Has she told you anything about him yet? I'm 'lowing to have him help me keep tavern if he's grown up as capable as he promised when he was a little shaver."

"No. She hain't said a word. Fact is, I hain't asked. We've been too busy with other things. Likely he's round somewheres. Maybe off hunting with them lazy soldiers. Shame, I think. The Government keepin' 'em just to loaf away their time."

"Hmm! What on earth else could they do with it? I met a man, coming along, said there'd been a right sharp lot of wolves prowlin' this winter an' spring. They're gettin' most too neighborly for comfort for the settlers across the prairies, so the military are trying to clear them out. That's not a bad idee. But don't it beat all! That little sissy, that used to have to stand on a three-legged stool to turn the stirabout, grown like she has? I never saw a finer woman, never; and her hair's the same dazzlin' kind it always was. I 'low I'm proud of her, and no mistake. h.e.l.lo! What's yonder? An Indian, on horseback, a-stoppin' to this place! What's he after? His face is painted black, too. There's Sunny Maid going out to talk with him, and Wahneeny, too.

Must be somethin' up."

"There's always somethin' up, where there's an Indian. I hate 'em, an'

they know it."

"I guess they do, ma. Wahneeny, for instance, and--Shucks! That long, lanky, copper-face out back there, settin' flat on the ground, trying to pitch jack-knives with a lot of other boys, white ones; he's the chap that hung around our place so much--the chicken-stealer. I'm going to speak to him."

"And I'm going to get him took up, just as soon as the Captain gets back, for setting our house afire. It wouldn't have happened if I'd been home; but you never could be trusted to look after things."

Abel thought it time to change the subject, and retreated, while Mercy's attention became riveted upon the group before the house. The faces of all three were very grave, and Wahneenah, who had come across to nurse a sick child, paid no heed to its fretful calls for her. The Indian horseman tarried but a brief time, then wheeled about and rode westward over the prairie, avoiding the regular road and the mud where the Smiths had suffered such annoyance.

Wahneenah returned to her charge, and the Sun Maid disappeared in the direction of the Fort. Before Mercy could decide whether to follow or not, the girl reappeared, and her old friend viewed her with amazement. She had mounted the s...o...b..rd, which looked no older than when Mercy had watched her gallop away across the prairie, and had slung the famous White Bow upon her saddle horn. About her floating hair she had wound a fillet of white beads and feathers, and fastened the White Necklace of Lahnowenah, the Giver, around her fair throat.

She sat her horse as only one trained to the saddle from infancy could have done, and her commanding figure seemed perfect in every outline.

"To the land's sake! Ain't she splendid! I never saw such a sight.

Never. Never. Abel! Abel! A-b-e-l!!"

"Yes, yes; what? Mercy, Mercy Smith, hold your tongue! Don't you know folks can't bawl in a settlement as they do in the backwoods? What ails you? I'm coming as fast as a man in reason can. Hey? Kitty? Well, why didn't you say so? Where? Out front? My--land! Well, well, well!

It ain't--it can't be--it is! Well, Kitty girl, you beat the Dutch!"

The young horsewoman rode up to the front door of her house, and paused to let her old friends admire her to their satisfaction. But their admiration aroused neither surprise nor vanity in her simple, straightforward mind. Years before, the old clergyman had said to her, upon their first meeting, that the Lord had been very good to her in giving her a beauty so remarkable and impressive; and under his wise instruction she had accepted the fact as she did all the others of her life. Only she had striven to keep her soul always worthy of the glorious form in which it was housed and to use all her gifts and graces for good. So she stood a while, letting the honest couple inspect and comment, and finally answering Abel's curiosity, in honest modesty.

"Why am I so dressed up? Because I have a mission to perform, and I need to make myself as beautiful as possible."

"Kit--ty Bris--coe! I've read in my red Bible that 'favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.' I'm amazed at you. Livin' with a minister, too.

Well, _he_ can't preach to _me_. I'd despise to set under him."

Abel's eyes twinkled, but the gravity of the Sun Maid's face did not lessen. She explained gently, yet with unshaken decision, that her self-adornment was right, and gave her reasons.

"You will remember, dears, that I am a 'Daughter of the Pottawatomies.' They believe that I have supernatural gifts, and that I am a spirit living in a human form."

"And you let 'em, Kit, you let 'em?"

"I couldn't prevent it if I tried. And I do not try. That idea of theirs is far too powerful a factor for good. Even Wahneenah, who knows better and is to me as a real mother, even she treats me a little more deferentially when I attire myself like this."

"Put on your war paint, eh?"

"No, indeed: my peace paint," laughed the girl. "The messenger you saw talking with Wahneenah and me is from an encampment a dozen miles or so to the westward. There are about five hundred Indians in the camp, and they are getting restless. They are always restless, it seems to me," and she sighed profoundly. "It is such a problem, isn't it? They think they have right on their side, and the whites think _they_ have; and there is so much that is good, so much that is evil, on both.

Well, the red people are planning treachery. The brave you saw is a real friend to the pale-faces, and one of my closest confidants. He came to warn me. His tribe, or the mixed tribes in the camp, are getting ready for an attack upon us, or some other near-by settlement.

I must go out and stop it,--find out their grievance and right it if I can. If not--Well, I must make peace. I may be gone for several days, and I may be back before morning. You must make yourselves comfortable somewhere. Ask Doctor Littlejohn. If he is too absorbed in his studies, then talk with One, his eldest son. He is a fine fellow, and knows everything about this village. Good-by."

"But, child alive! You ain't going alone, single-handed, to face five hundred b.l.o.o.d.y Indians! You must be crazy!"

"Oh, no, I'm not. It is all right. I am not afraid. There isn't an Indian living who would harm a hair of my head, if he knew me; and almost all in Illinois do know me, either by sight or reputation. I am very happy with them and shall have a pleasant visit; that is, after I have dissuaded them from this proposed attack."

"Kit, you couldn't do it. 'Tain't in nature. A young girl, alone, pretty as you are--You _sha'n't_ do it,--not with my consent; not while I'm alive and can set a horse or handle a gun. No, sirree. If you go, I go, and that's the long and short of it."

"No, dear Father Abel; you must not go; indeed you must not. It would ruin everything. It makes me very sad to have these constant broils and ill-feelings coming up between my white-faced and red-faced friends; yet the Lord permits it, and I try to be patient. But I tell you again, and you must believe it, that I am as safe out yonder in that camp of savages as I am here, this minute, with you. I am the Sun Maid, the Unafraid, the Daughter of Peace, the Snowflake. They have as many names for me as I am years old, I fancy. Each name means some n.o.ble thing they think they see in my character, and so I try to live up to it. It's hard work, though, because I'm--well, I'm so quick-tempered and full of faults. But I suppose if G.o.d didn't mean me to do this work, be a sort of peacemaker, He wouldn't have made me just as I am or put me in just this place. That's what the Doctor says, and so I do the best I can. After all, it's a great honor, I think, to be let to serve people in this way, and so--Good-by, good-by!"

The s...o...b..rd sprang forward at a word and, by experience trained to shun the sloughs and mud-holes, skimmed lightly across the prairie and out of sight. The Smiths stood and watched its disappearance, and the erect white figure upon its back, till both became a speck in the distance. Then, completely dumfounded by the incident, Abel sat down near the door-step to reflect upon it, while the more energetic Mercy departed for the Fort, declaring:

"I'll see what that all means, or I'll never say another word's long as I live! The idee! _Men_--folks calling themselves _men_--and wearing government breeches, as I suppose they do, letting a girl like that go to destruction without a soul to stop her! But, my land!

she was a sight to see, and no mistake!"

Meanwhile that was happening down at the little wharf which set all tongues a-chatter and fascinated all eyes.

"A fleet is coming in! A regular fleet of schooners, from the north and the upper lakes!"

Those who had not gone hunting crowded to the sh.o.r.e, and even the women caught their babies up and followed the men, Abel among the others, roused from his anxious brooding over the Sun Maid's daring and catching the excitement.

"Shucks! Something must be up down that direction. Beats all. Here I've been only part of a day, and more things have gone on than would at our clearing in a month of Sundays. I--I'm all of a fl.u.s.ter to kind of keep my head level an' my judgment cool. 'Twouldn't never do to let on to ma how stirred up I be. Dear me! Seems as if I wouldn't never get there. I do hope they'll wait till I do."

After all, it was the quietest and drowsiest of little hamlets, dropped down in the mud beside a great waterway; and the "fleet,"

which had roused so much interest, was but a modest one of a half-dozen small schooners, laden with furs and peltries and manned by the smallest of crews.

However, to Abel, and to many another, it was a memorable event; and he made a pause at the Fort, which in itself was an object of great interest to him, to inform Mercy of the spectacle she was losing.

"Come on, ma! It's a regular show down there. Real sailors and ships--we hain't seen the like since we left the East and the coast of old Ma.s.sachusetts."

"Ships? My heart! I never expected to look upon another. Just to think it!"

The foremost vessel came to sh.o.r.e and was made fast; and there upon its deck stood a tall, dark-bearded man, who appeared what he was--the commander of the fleet; and he gave his orders in a clear, ringing voice that was instantly obeyed. His manner was grave, even melancholy; and his interest in the safe landing seemed greater than in any person among the expectant groups. He had tossed his hat aside and waited bareheaded in the sunshine till all was ready, when he stepped quietly ash.o.r.e.

Then, indeed, he cast an inquiring glance around, in the possibility, though not probability, of meeting a familiar face. All at once, his dark eyes brightened and his bearing lost its indifference. Pushing his way rapidly through the crowd, he approached Abel and Mercy and extended his hands in greeting.

"Hail, old friends! Well met!"

"Hey? What? Ruther think you've got the better of me, stranger," said the pioneer, awkwardly extending his own hardened palm.

"Probably the years since we met have made a greater change in me than in you. You both look exactly as you did that last day I saw you at the harvesting."

"Hey? Which? When? I can't place you, no how. I ain't acquainted with ary sailor, so far forth as I remember."

"But Gaspar, Father Abel? Surely, you and Mercy remember Gaspar Keith, whom you sheltered for so many years, and who treated you so badly at the end?"

"Glory! It ain't! My soul, my soul! Why, Gaspar--_Gaspar!_ If it's you, I'm an old man. Why, you was only a stripling, and now----"

"Now, I'm a man, too. That's all. We all have to grow up and mature. I feel older than you look. And Mercy, the years have certainly used you well. It is good, indeed, to see your faces here, where I looked for strangers only."

"Them's us, lad. Them's us. _We're_ the strangers in these parts. Just struck Chicago this very day. Got stuck in the mud, and had to be fished out like a couple of clams. And who do you think done the fishing? Though, if you hadn't spoke that odd way just now, I'd have thought you would have known first off. Who do you suppose?"

"Oh, he'll never guess. A man is always so slow," interrupted Mercy, eagerly. "Well, 'twas n.o.body but our own little Kit! The Sun Maid, and looking more like a child of the sunshine even than when you run off with her so long ago."

"The--Sun--Maid! _Kit-ty, my Kitty?_"