The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-11-18
hi. figure till It was lost in the twilight.
"Pier.e talks less than ever" said major,
who till then had not uttered q word.


BlAMrs. Kent, following her own train
ef Thought, expressed herself more strongly
NJ don't likefhat Frencbman," she said,
as she turned q hck into her room, with hi
dark face and fhooth manne<, Hes heart
less. Besides, Mr. kensvhat are We to dc
with an Indian papoose on ous hands al
winter? Likely to get the mealkes, whoop-
ing cough, scarlet fever, croufs chicken.
pox-"
1.-The major, smiling, stopped her: Looi
there, wife.''
The bundle which Pierre had thrust into
the room still lay on the floor, but out of il
had crept dusky little creature about two
years old At the sound of the unfanilia,
voices he scut.led across the room ike q
crab into the darkest corner, between the
bedstead and wall, and stood there, bis
bright black eyes shining through the gloom
and look of grotesque sweetness, bali
defiant, on his round baby face. lie
was dressed fantastically in n suit of
buctsiin, jacket and lagginss, richly
worked and friugad with beads Of many
hues. Moccasins were on his tiny feet; a
string of bears claws and hawks bells a.
round his neck tangled low at every move
ment, and in his long straight hair wei
twisted three or four Of the hargeable
FURNISHED feathers from the cocks tail.
The beads and bell and feathers glimmered
in the-red freight with savage spendor:
the little form was straight as an arrow
tie little face set in all a chiljs's dignity.
and the boy looked not unlike baby
chief.ain dressed for the war dance-his
grandfather, "the chief of all the Siox,
il, miniature.
Mrs. Kent saw only mo.herless little
one hurt and lonely.
Come, honey" she cried as she gath
cred him, buckskin, feathers, and all, to
her ample Bosom. "Poor little man IN
sure mothers yearnlng sorely for you this
night
And in the DAYS which came the child
vearned for his mother in a way pitiful TO
see. Or perhaps be missed more the fresh
air ard wild, free life Of the prairie and
and woods. lie was not happy with his
kind friends. His new clothes were q
torment to him, for as the first step to-
" lrds civilization, Mrs. Kent stripped of
his heathenish gewgaws and put him into
frocks. The daily scrubbing with soap
and warm water he considered quite unne-
cessary, for he had but few baths before
in his life, and those in only chance way
| side stream, where his mother broke the
ice, held him by the heels and plunged him
in. Nor was he comfortable on his soft
bed, for he Remembered will how through
the long summer days he had been strapped
into his cocoor-shaped cradle and hung
on the low branched trees to be rocked by
every wind that blew, as fat and drowsy
as the swaddle butterfly grub which
swung by his side.
And yet he never cried and fretted.
lie sat patiently at first, staring az the
door and looking wistfally into the face
of any one who entered lie todiled out
whenever the door was unlatched and
could be always captured in the back gar
den, digging n the earth, throwing sticks
and stones at the birds flying over his
head, chasing the chickens, torturing the
cat, rolling ever the dogs: in the stable
under the horses feet; playing in the mud
puddles with bits Of bark for canoes. And
all this with such sober, steady ardor
that Mrs Kent shook her head in dispair
ard saIi, "Bl'tiste is m)ther's child, al
Indian clear through, and theirs no use
going against Nature"
Meanwhile, the winter had fairly set in,
a regular old fashioned winter. The gar
rison walked up one morning and saw the
great yellow river which rolls by the fort
frozen from shore to shore, the ice 50 thick
that loaded oxwagons could be driven
across. Then it showed by day and froze al
night till the whole wide prairie around the
fort was covered with snow four feet deep
on the level, while in the gorges aud drifts
only the topmost boughs of the pine trees
were seen. The soldiers shoyeled pathways
out through the sallyports, and piled the
snow high above their heads on either side
1t froze there into solid wall lasting fal
into the spring The miserable half-clad,
half-fed Indians aIwags lowering around a
western fort h1cked in for food and shelterr
The wolves did not wait TO be hunted down
for, tnmed by hunger and cold, they Prov
led close under the wells, and sometime,
at night they even crept in, lean and lank
4 with hideous howlings, as if to beg the
blood they fercelv snatched in warm
weather. All landmarks and trails were
covered up. and the old hunters sat around
their hearths like women and spun long
years Whoever left the fort did SO at the
risk of his life. One man ventured, for q
foolish wager, to cross the river at nj ht, a
distance of quarter ola mile. The all
was thick with the binding snow and the
moon was obscured. He lost his wav
turned back, wandered about as long a,
his strength lasted, then he lay down tt
sleep with the eertaIaty that he should
waken again. 10 the early morning he
was fonnd by his anxious comrades jus,
: outside the wals.wilhin a stones tt row o.
his starting point, more dead than alive
only alive because large wolf, weak
ened by starvation, had fallen on top o.
him AMI laid there all night, thus preserv-
ing with his shaggy body feeble spark of
life in the man.
The agents house during this stress o.
wea her was the head quarters of ths
fa mished Indians. They crowded, IN
kempt and Mrs. Kent gave them what