The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-15

the tepee, where her mother used to
have the big iron kettle hung over the
fire, kettle in which nearly all the
time fragrant "soup" was simmer
ing, SO that when Pretty Flower Wo-
man was hungry, all she had to do
was to take bowl, and knife, or
maybe spoon if she could find one,
and help herself to the soup, and sit
down beside the fire and watch the
beautiful flames and eat her soup,
throwing the bones to a half dozen
gaunt, hungry dogs. Then maybe
little Deaf Eagle, the son of Drifting
Goose, who lived just across the
creek in big tepee, would come and
eat soup with her, and then they and
the other little Dakotas would have
fine romp, game of hide and seek,
or tag, till the blood in their bodies
was just as warm as could be. The
big yellow dogs would look up and
enjoy it too, maybe, but they were
generally too lazy or too hungry to
be playful.
And then the beautiful tepee they
used to live in; it had small open
ing at the top for the escape of the
smoke from the fire in the center, and
Pretty Flower Woman loved to look
up and see the smoke curling up
through the opening; and then if her
feet we're cold in the night all she
had to do was to slip down toward
the fire and hold out her feet to the
embers to get as warm as toast.
Those old days were gone now, and
the small maiden hated the whole
plan of being civilized with all her
soul, and of course being a rebel
against what her father thought best,
she was unhappy.
Nor was that all of her troubles.
Standing Bear and Winona had been
very fond of their little daughter, so
they gave her her pretty name. Her
old grandmother had not wanted the
baby named so fanciful a name; her
own name was Thewoman -who-gets-
up t-daybreak, and she was afraid
the baby would grow up not liking to
work, to take down and put up the
tepee when they moved, nor dress the
deerskins when the men came in from
the hunt, nor to haul wood and wat
er, nor bead moccasins, nor cook
soup, all of which dutiful Indian
woman must do and do well. But
Winona had loved the tiny baby with
her black eyes and brown skin just as
much as white mothers love their gol-
den haired darlings who come into
the most comfortable and happy
homes, and SO she was named, and
Winona was very proud. But the
second of the little maids troubles
was that now a little brother had
come to live in the new hut with
them, and instead of being glad and
happy that brown faced little
brother had come for her to love and
care for, Pretty Flower Woman hated
the little stranger, and wished he had
not come because now she could no
longer have the warmest corner, nor
the bright clothes, nor the entire at
tention of the mother, and when the
women came to see the mother they
no longer admired her, but they told
Winona what fine boy she had, and
he would hunt for her, and bring her
much deer meat and many skins
when he was grown, and Winona liked
to hear them talk, and would smile
at her baby when they said that; and
so the hatred in Pretty Flower Wo-
mans heart grew and grew until ]
am ashamed to tell you what she did,
but you must remember that she had
never in her life heard of the Dear
Friend who loves little children and
wants them to be kind and tender to
their little brothers and sisters. She
did not know that that Friend cared
anything about the little brown
brother or her, and so one day when
her mother had gone to the river for
water her evil thoughts grew into
action. Winona had taken the axe
with which to chop a hole in the ice,
and it would take her some time to
get back with the heavy water key
hung across her back by a leather
strap passed across her forehead, so
as soon as she was out of sight, and
Standing Bear was sitting out on the
south side of the house smoking his
pipe in the sunshine, Pretty Flower
Woman snatched up the poor baby,
all tied up into stiff bundle of
emilia and vranned round and round