d where they would
eagerly have slaked their thirst, had they been permitted.

"But that won't do, Wahneenah, will it? At our Fort we never watered
a horse when it was warm. The Captain said they would be ruined, so."

"You do well to remember all the wisdom you have been taught,
Dark-Eye. Here, let me show you something even a white man may not
know. How to tether a horse with a rope of prairie grass, made in a
moment, but strong enough to last for long."

"Lift me off, Other Mother," cried Kitty, from the Snowbird's back,
and Wahneenah swung her down.

"Now, Dark-Eye, pull as much of this rush grass as your arms can hold.
It will take a heap for three ropes."

"Have the pretty ponies been naughty? Must they be tied up, too?"

"Not because they are bad, but because they are good, papoose! That is
the way of life. It is full of contradictions. But, don't wrinkle your
pretty brows puzzling what you cannot understand. Run and help the
Dark-Eye pull the long grasses."

It was so wonderful to see Wahneenah's skilful fingers twist and turn
and thread the slender blades in and out that both children were
fascinated by her deftness; and though Gaspar could not at all catch
the trick of this curious weaving, he resolved to practise it in
private till he could equal, or excel, this example. Again his
ambition arose to prove that a pale-face was always superior to an
Indian, and his dark eyes gazed so fixedly upon Wahneenah's flying
fingers that she laughed, and demanded:

"Are you jealous, my son? But there's no need. Nothing that I know
will be hidden from you, if you choose to be taught. But, come. Take
this rope that is finished. Twist it about the gelding's neck--so; now
pass it downward between his front legs and hobble him by the right
hind one. No, he'll not resist. Try it. Then you'll see that he'll
neither nibble at his tether nor run away from us."

Gaspar was too proud to show that he somewhat dreaded interfering with
the restless legs of the spirited Tempest, and to his astonishment he
found that the animal submitted very quietly to the tying. This may
have been because Wahneenah stood by its beautiful head and murmured
some soft sounds into its dainty ears. Though what the murmuring meant
nobody save herself and Tempest understood. In like manner, and very
quickly, all three horses were fastened in the shade of the trees, and
as soon as they had cooled sufficiently, Gaspar was bidden to water
them.

The