The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-12-02
Rnby,s MOccaSiHS.

They were very small moccasins.
What are moccasins? Of course, you
don't know. Moccasins are shoes
such as Indians wear. They are made
of soft leather, so that they are not
stiff like our shoes, nor are they so
heavy. No pegs are used to put them
together; they are sewed with bone
needle and thread also made of strips
of leather. Usually only one piece OF
leather is used for each moccasion. BY
pounding it and stretching it over a
stone while it is wet, with.two cuts IN
lit, one at the heel the other on top, q
good Indian workman can give it the
proper shape for the foot. A few
moccasins are made with the fur inside
ffor warmth, but ordinarily the furs are
l removed. Many Of them or painted
or adorned with beads or pieces of
colored bone. The moccasins about
which l am going to tell you, were
very small, only about four inches
long. They were made to measure,
too, and made in one day.
Away back near the year l745 q
woman was getting dinner one day.
Her kitchen was room in log cabin
and it was also the diningroonl, parlor,
and even bedroom sometimes. She
had no stove. All her cooking was
done in the fireplace. A pot hung on
the crane; piece of BEARS meat was
ready for the spit. Of course, when
che baked wheat bread she used the
CLAW oven outside, but the corn bread
was baked in the hot ashes of the fire
place in the kitchen. This autumn
day she was hurryiXg to have dinner
ready for her husband when he should
come in from the field where he was
|husking corn. While she worked, her
baby boy was rolling over the floor,
kicking his chubby bare legs and feet
about, shaking his dumpling fists at
the rafters and watching a chicken
near the door, beyond which he could
see the stump-dotted clearing and the
tinted forest. Shortly before dinner a
shadow darkened the door. The baby
laughed as an Indian who stepped
quietly in, with a grunt, which meant
lgood morning. He was friendly In
dian to whom the baby's father had
once done kindness, and so Wakehah
/ THAT was his name) came often to the
Tcabin about dinner time. Soon the
father came in with a hearty back
woods greeting for this dusky friend
who shared their dinner.
i After the father had gone back to
his corn-husking Wakenah sat on the
chest by thedoor watching the baby on
the floor. Before long he took the boy
in his arms, held up his tiny bare feet
before his mother and said, mo
moccasin baby ?"
"No," said The mother, "baby has
no moccasins."
make moccasin baby"
He strobe out of the door. with the
baby under his arm, carrying him as il
he were a bundle. the baby chuckliDg
and laughing. The. mother was too
much occupied with her work to un-
.lerstand what Wakenah was doing.
She noticed by the shadows on the
floor that it was only a little after
twelve o'clock when the Indian car
ried her baby away. Three. O'Clock
came quickly to the busy woman, and
when She went to look for them in the
ward neither baby nor Indian was to
be seen. She called, but there was no
answer, and then she ran to the field
to- tell her husband that the savage
had run off with their only child. The
father hardly knew what to do. l
wonder what your father would have
done in such a case. Would he do as
the baby's father decided TO DO
That was-what? Well, nothing yes,
indeed. Of course, the mother thought
he ought TO go after the baby and
bring hin home. But the father SAID
, that Wakenah must be trusted. LII
they believed in him, he would bring
the baby back soon. If he had not
come back by evening, the father said
he would 90 to Wakenah's hut and get
r the baby. He would not let the mother
90, either. So they waited. -"Five
, o'clock,n said the shadow on the floor,
but no baby came. But about half
mast five Wakehah. came through the
woods and across the clearing, carrying
a very tired and very dirty baby in his
arms. On the little feet were two little
moccasius, with fringes around them
: and figures of beads all over them. Oh
course they thanked Wakenah for his
kindness, but the mother hardly
thought a pair of moccasins paid for
her anxiety. Yet once, long after that
, when the baby had become young
man, one of those moccasins saved his
life. He had been captured by party
: of Indians who were going to kill him,
but he had one of his baby shoes with
him, and showed it to the Indians,
who did not know him. But Wakenah
. was among the Indians, and be remem.
bered the dinners of bears meat and
beans and the white mans faith in
him, and he sent home the captive
: with his moccasin. The young man
kept those moccasins for many years,
and gave them to his son; but they
, were burned up in the fire that de.
stroyed the stone house which had
been built near the place where the
long cabin had stood. All this goes to
show, however that even Indians re-
member kindness.