The Sun Maid Part 22

"You--you don't look so very mighty," returned the girl, truthfully.

Osceolo frowned. "That is as one sees. Fetch me the horse and the meat, if you would have your Other Mother restored."

"I will. I will!" she cried, and ran back to the Fort. She went first to the kitchen, and begged a meal "for a stranger that's just come,"

and the food was given her without question. Strangers were always coming to be fed; herself, also, no longer ago than the last evening.

From the kitchen to the stables, where a bright thought came to her.

She would lead the Tempest to Osceolo, and herself ride the s...o...b..rd.

Together they would go to find Wahneenah.

"The black gelding?" asked the soldier of whom she sought a.s.sistance.

"The hostler can maybe tell you. But I think the Black Partridge rode away on him before daybreak."

"The Black Partridge! Oh! I had forgotten him in my trouble about Gaspar. Did any harm come to him, sir?"

"No. What harm should? If every red-skin in Illinois was like him there'd be little need of us fellows out here in this mud-hole. But you look disappointed. If you want to take a ride, there's the white mare you came on. But you'd better not go far away. It isn't safe for a child like you."

"I'm not afraid, but--Well, if Tempest's gone, I can't. That's all."

So the s...o...b..rd was brought out, and she led the pretty creature away behind the shelter of the few trees which hid the spot where Osceolo had bade her meet him.

"I tried to get Tempest for you, but the Chief has ridden him away. I meant to go with you. But you'll have to go alone. Tell my darling Other Mother that I am here, and waiting. Tell her about Gaspar, and that he said he had found out she would be quite safe here. Why, so, I suppose, would you. I didn't think."

"No, I shouldn't," returned the young Indian hastily. Then, noting her surprise, explained:

"I'm a warrior, you see. That makes a difference."

"It will be all right, though, I think. And if you cannot come back with Wahneenah, do hurry and send her by herself. Will you?"

"Oh, I'll hurry!" answered the youth, evasively, and leaped to the s...o...b..rd's back. The food he had stuffed within his s.h.i.+rt till a more convenient season, and with a cry that even to Kitty's trusting ears sounded in some way derisive, he was off out of sight along the lakeside.

As the s...o...b..rd disappeared, Kitty felt that the last link between herself and her friends had been severed, and for a moment the tears had sway. Then, ashamed of her own weakness and remembering her promise to Gaspar that she would be "just the sunniest kind of a girl, and true to her name," she brushed them away and entered the busy Fort, to proffer her services to the women in charge.

These had already learned her story and had reprimanded her for running away from her protectors, the Smiths; but it was n.o.body's business to return her and, meanwhile, she was safe at the Fort until they should choose to call for her.

"Well, there is always plenty of work in the world for the hands that will do it," said an officer's wife, with a kindly smile. "You seem too small to be of much practical use; but, however, if you want a task, there are some little fellows yonder who need amusing and comforting. Their mother has died of a fever, and their father is more of a student and preacher than a nurse. I guess his wife was the ruling spirit in the household, and now that she has left him, he is sadly unsettled. He doesn't know whether to go on and take up the claim he expected or not. He and you, and the oddly-named little sons, may all yet have to become wards of the Government."

"I'm very sorry for him."

"You well may be. Yet he's a gentle, blessed old man. No more fit to marry and bring that flock of youngsters out here into the wilderness than I am to command an army. She was much younger than he, and felt the necessity of doing something toward providing for their children and educating them. But the more I talk, the more I puzzle you. Run along and lend them a hand. The very smallest Littlejohn of the lot has filled his mouth with dirt, and is trying to squall it out. See if a drink of water won't mend matters."

Kitty hastened to the child, and begged;

"My dear, don't cry like that. You are disturbing the people."

"Don't care. I ain't my dear; I'm Four."

"You're what?"

"Just Four. Four Littlejohns. What pretty hair you've got. May I pull it?"

"I'd rather not. Unless it will make you forget the dirt you ate."

But the permission given, the child became indifferent to it. He pointed to three other lads crouching against the door-step, and explained:

"They're One, Two, and Three. My father, he says it saves trouble.

Some folks laugh at us. They say it's funny to be named that way. I was eating the dirt because I was--I was mad."

"Indeed! At whom?"

"At everybody. I'm just mis'able. I don't care to live no longer."

The round, dimpled face was so exceedingly wholesome and happy, despite its transient dolefulness, that Kitty laughed and her merriment brought an answering smile to the four dusty countenances before her.

"Wull--wull--I is. My father, he's mis'able, too. So, course, we have to be. He's a minister man. He can't tell stories. He just tells true ones out the Bible. Can you tell Bible stories?"

"No. I--I'm afraid I don't know much about that book. Mercy had one, but she kept it in the drawer. She took it out on Sundays, though. She didn't let Gaspar nor me touch it. She said we might spoil the cover.

That was red. It was a reward of merit when she was a girl. It had clasps, and was very beautiful. It had pictures in it, too, about saints and dead folks; but I never read it. I couldn't read it if I tried, you know, because I've never been taught."

This was amazing to the four book-crammed small Littlejohns. One exclaimed, with superior disgust:

"Such a great big girl, and can't read your Bible! You must be a heathen, and bow down to wood and stone."

"Maybe I am. I don't remember bowing down to anything, except when I say my prayers."

"Your prayers! Then you can't be a real heathen. Heathens don't say prayers, not our kind. Hmm. What lovely eyes you've got and how pretty you are! All the women never saw such wonderful hair as yours, nor the men either. I heard them say so. If I had a sister, I'd like her to look just like you. But it's wicked to be vain."

"What do you mean, you funny boy?"

"I'm not funny. I'm serious. My mother--my mother said--my mother--Oh!

I want her! I want her!"

Religion, superiority, priggishness, all flew to the winds as his real and fresh grief overcame him; and it was a heart-broken lad that hurled himself against the shoulder of this sympathetic-looking girl who, though so much taller, was not so very much older than he.

The Sun Maid's own heart echoed the cry with a keen pain, and she received the orphan's outburst with exceeding tenderness. Now, whatever One, the eldest, did the other young numerals all imitated, so that each was soon weeping copiously. Yet, from very excess of energy, their grief soon exhausted itself and they regarded each other with some curiosity. Then Three began to smile, in a shamefaced sort of way, not knowing how far his recovery of composure would be approved by sterner One.

After a habit familiar to him the latter opened his lips to reprove but, fortunately, refrained, as he discovered a tall, stoop-shouldered man crossing the parade-ground.

This gentleman seemed oddly out of place amid that company of immigrants and soldiers. Student and bookworm was written all over his fine, intellectual countenance, and his eyes had that absent expression that had made the commandant's wife call him a "dreamer."

His bearing impressed the Sun Maid with reverent awe; a feeling apparently not shared by his sons. For Three ran to him and shook him violently, to secure attention, as he eagerly exclaimed:

"Oh, father! We've found one of 'em already! A heathen. Or, any way, a heatheny sort of a girl, but not Indian. She doesn't know how to read, and she hasn't any Bible. Come and give her one and teach her quick!"

"Eh? What? A heathen? My child, where?"

"Right there with my brothers. That yellow-headed girl. She's nice.

Are all the heathen as pretty as she is?"