The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-04-04
BRIGHT-EYES.

his wife, as their own child, went out
into the woods to gather blueberries.
There had been fire in the woods
that winter, and where it ran the
berries grew thick. When Bright
Eyes had filled her pals she would
walk down into the village and go
calling from house to house, "Ber-
ries, blueberries p who wants nice
blueberries?" until she had disposed
of them. And what with the ber-
ries and sassafras bark, which she
sold to the druggist, and winter
green and calamus root, and nuts
in autumn, and her little bead-work
bags, there was always enough to
put by to buy Bright-Eyes her gray
calico frocks, shoes for her pretty
feet, yarn for her stockings, and
those little straw hats, which she
trimmed with the gray wings of the
birds that Father Parker shot at
times. Bright-Eyes was very inde-
pendent, and fonder of giving than
receiving.
To-day, the berries being SO thick,
she had a great harvest, and high
noon had come and it was time
that she went home, tidied herself,
and went down to the village to be
in time for the housekeepers who
wanted berries for tea; when, as
she gathered up her pals, singing
them to a sort of yoke she placed
upon her neck, she heard groan
hard by, and after some search she
found a man lying among the un-
derbrush, bleeding from a terrible
wound in his shoulder and appar-
emily near his end.
The first thing Bright-Eyes did
was to staunch the wound as we'll
as she could, with certain herbs of
which she knew, and bind it with
her apron; the next to go for aid.
In little time the old woodsman
and his men arrived, and together
they bore the wounded stranger to
their home. The rough, self-taught
surgeon of the place attended him
the bullet was extracted, the fever
allayed. That the man had acci-
dentally shot himself had been self
evident from the first and it was GER
tain that had not Bright-Eyes found
HMM the woods he would have
bled to death in very little while.
He seemed grateful, and not
averse to expressing his feelings.
"Old Parker, as he expressed it.,
"took shine to him."
Though he's a city chap and a
college fellow" he said, she don't
put on no frills."
The name he gave them was Chas.
Graham. and he would gladly have
compensated his host for all the
trouble and expense he had been
at, but that in the far west, at that
date, the thought of receiving pay
ment for such things was never
entertained.
'.Stay as long as you like; we're
glad to have you," old Parker said,
and Graham fingered.
That Bright Eyes was the attrac-
ton was soon very evident.
More than one man of the place
had married an Indian girl, and
Bright-Eyes was a Christian and
went to the little church on Sun
day, and wore the dress and had
the ways of white women. More
over she was beautiful. No one won
dered at his fancy. The girl gave
him her whole heart and soul; and
when in the autumn he went away,
be slipped bright ring with a jewel
in it upon the girls finger, and said
Before the snow falls will return
and marry you.'
He left also many presents. Stuffs
more costly than Bright-Eyes had
ever worn, and the girl went to
work to fashion them into garments
which she should wear when she
was his wife.
But the snow came and he re-
turned not; nor did any message
come from him. And people began
to whisper when they spoke of the
Indian girl, and to say that all the
teaching on earth would not change
a savage.
At last Bright Eyes held in her
arms a little dark-skinnei babe,
with it's white fathers features and
it's Indian mothers eyes.
The old people were not cruel to
her. They did not drive her forth.
But one morning they awoke to
find her gone.
IL will not stay to disgrace you,"
she bad written on piece of paper
pinned to her pillow. "You have
been very good to me. Good-by."
AS for Charles Graham, he had
by this time almost forgotten the
pretty Indian girl who had amused
him that summer in the woods, and
thought her Kindness we'll paid for
in the silk dresses and the handful
of trinkets he had given her. Some
times he said to himself: "She was
pretty creature land laughed q
little. That was all.
But to every man one true love