Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-05-12

4 ~I@gesS known, his Indian appella-
HNgg9 & ton Of Nodsawana. May
gXYS 4 be he got the name with.
E8Sss;2 q out christening When
Rk%|N B the Nez Perces got
sassaN white boy, they didn't 60
much on formality.
A'A When Sandy Smith first
saw him, he was about three years old
and was in trouble. He was about as
dirty as any member of the tribe
which harbored him, and save for oc-
casional light spots, where his skin
accidentally broke through the crust
and save for his top shock of straw
colored hair, it would have been rather
difficult to recognize him as white
He was standing outside a teepee at
a safe distance-Wher things couldn't
be thrown at him-gritting his teeth,
sobbing and kneading his eyes with
two very dirty, very pudgy fists.
Sandy had been on a kind of vaca-
ton, the kind that suited him best. BY
selling some timberland in the Olym-
pics and reinvesting in a mining
claim, he stood in pretty fair way to
get rich. That is, almost everybody
In the district thought so. So he'd been
making a little trip over into Idaho.
But that hasn't much to do with Mods.
Coming back to him-Sandy happen
ed to ride through this camp just
at the time when Mods was feeling
pretty bad.
If the angel Trouble had a job on
hand, he must have felt like pulling a
gun when Sandy Smith came around;
because that was Sandys weak point.
Couldn't bear to see anybody, let alone
a child, in sorrow.
Seeing Mods crying, out in front of
the teepee, Sandy pulled up his horse,
swung over into the side of his saddle,
and took a look at such an amazing
thing as little white boy in an Indian
where; and, naturally, Mods recipro-
Gated the attention.
The pudgy fists came away about a
foot from the tear-stained face and then
stopped. The eyes, which looked just
like gentian flowers, opened wide, and
Mods sized Sandy up for all he was
worth Then, either because he hadn't
forgotten white folks or because there
was something about Sandy that went
10 his baby heart, he twisted his face
into a smile that was like big burst
of sunshine over rain-swept meadow.
Now all this time Sandy had been
watching him with kind of a paralyzed
3ook. When Mods gave him that smile,
he couldn't help giving it back. Sandy's
face, with its long, struggling mus
tache, was one of the set, steady kind
that seldom changed; but if any one
ever saw him laugh, it was sure to be
a surprise. 1t was so unexpected, and
made you think there were things In
Sandy that you never knew be-
fore
Mods saw this, and without delay
trudged up alongside the pony and
held up both hands. Wanted to be
taken up and away from that village;
TO so to some place with some one
who had kind word instead of kick
for him. Sandy fairly fell off his
horse, dropped down on his knees,
and put his big, long arms around
Mods, and that's how it began. How
Sandy and Mods became acquainted.
Mods gave a sigh big enough for
fullgTown man, and, soon as he could
get room, put his two little arms
around Sandys neck, struggled his
face right up against Sandy's, and
held It there. And from that on Sandy
could have died for him. 1t wasn't
anything he was used to. He had,
in his time, loved and been loved by
lots of things, but not by small chap
like this
So Sandy was crying and laughing,
when he felt something looking at him,
turned round, and saw three or four
blanketed bucks. But in all the crowd
there wasn't anything white. They
didn't look as though they liked Sandy
much
A powwow brought out the fact that
this youngster had been left with an
old sQuaw by man who claimed TO
be his daddy. Said he was coming
back in a week, but year had slid on
Into the nowhere. The squaw was TOO
old to do much camp work; but she
wasn't too old to think heap OF Mods
swana. And probably about all the
kindness the little shaver ever knew
In all that year had been from her.
The old woman, being not much USE
had to subsist off the camp p1cklngs'
SO there may have been times when
both she and Mods went pretty nun
cry. It was easier for her to stand
abuse, though, than it was for Nods.
She was more used to it, having hVed
longer.
The minute Sandy showed signs OF
wanting Mods, the chief valued MIN
highly 1t took day and nights
trading to get him, but Sandy won out
being the kind of a fellow that never
quits. Once or twice he decided ne u
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