Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-30
MINNIE BO0=H00.

81 hear some one crying" said Nellie.
cts only cat" said viii. They're
always yowling."
The two were taking a walk together
and they had come to the big river bot
toms, a section they had been told never
to enter. The crying grew louder.
TT sounds just like baby" whis-
pered Nellie.
"'Taint no baby said Will disdain-
fully: there are no houses round here.
It's a wild animal, and I'm going up
to that cottonwood tree and I'm going
to shoot right plumb into the noise. In
kill the thing. whatever 1t Is
He was very brave, and meant what
he said, and he had brought out In the
lunch pail beautiful new pistol belong
ing to his brother Jim. The country was
newly settled. and grown up people gen.
orally thought it necessary to carry arms,
but Will was only ten. and not for the
whole world would his mother nave let
him carry Jim'S pistol had She KNOWN
Nellie was not brave. SO she said in a
weak little voice: Il think I'll go back
home fore you shoot off that pistol
pistol. which, to tell the truth. he was a
wee bit afraid of himself. Girls are
EDWARDS. I know. But, Nellie" the boy
continued. you're not to be let to go
home by yourself. I'll go. too"
A pitiful cry came then.
OTIS baby." said Nellie. Come along,
I'm a coward, know, but I've got pluck
enough to go into that bunch of PUSHES
and see if some one hasn't left poor
little baby there"
coarsely woven basket lay cunning
littl, baby Just like Moses in the
Bible" said Nellie, when the tiny papoose
stopped crying and turned its black,
beady eyes to her face.
"Gra-cious" cried Will. ITS an Injun,
and it's alive! Come along. Nellie. Wen
get into trouble If we stay here. We must
run home double quick"
The papoose was strapped to board
and could not wriggle about much, but it
twisted it's little neck around like a Cali
fornia owl and gave Nellie wide smile
that showed two lines of pink gums, and
said "Goo-goo-goo," just as white baby
would. "Oh, Will, wait a minute, I'm
not going to leave the poor thing to die,
I'm going to take it home and raise 1t;
I'd a heap rather have it than wax doll
from New York like Lizzie Leighs."
"Oh, say! Will burst out. you'll risk
your life if you touch that kid. You don't
know what pernickerty kind of an Injun
will be long after it pretty soon."
II don't care If big Injun comes and
kills me.' declared Nellie defantly. look
ing fearfully over her shoulder, however,
to see If a chief in war paint and feathers
was in sight, but in spite of her fears,
picking up the baby and walking quickly
toward home with it, whispering all sorts
of soothing things into its ear, to all of
which the little red morsel only replied
as before, "Goo-goo-goo!"
MelIieS mother took the baby in and
took care of it, treating it just as kindly
as if it had been her own. She is just
such a good woman as Nellie will be
WV" Win to told h his father the story and he
made up a party to go off and hunt for
the parents of the little copper-colored
baby. But all they could find out was
that a food which carried off the build
ings in two Dakota villages took in its
wake and swept away an Indian encamp-
ment, and it seemed quite possible that
the baby in the basket had floated off on
in the swamp, where the children found
1t crying.
That was five years ago. No one has
ever come to look for 1t. The little baby
has grown to be quite big girl now and
has made Nellie happier than ten wax
dolls with red hair could have DONE or
course her real name could never be
learned, but sMellie's mother, who was a
great reader, called her Minnie-boo-
hoo, because she had heard that after
Abraham Lincoln read about Minnie-ha-
ha C'Laughing Water'o in "Hiawatha," he
said, crying water would be Minnie-boo-
hoo. / think that was funny. but some
of the neighbors said it was nonsense, and
SO they just called Mellie's red little In
dian Doll Baby Minnie.