he answers are what He sees is
best, not what we want."

"Don't sigh that way, Other Mother! S'posin' your little boy did go
away. Haven't you got Gaspar and Kitty?"

"Yes, little one."

"Go on, then. About the little maid--just like me."

"So she put her own two tiny hands up toward the sky and asked the
Great Spirit to put soft shoes on her tired little feet."

"And He did, didn't He?"

"Surely. First the pain eased and that made her look down. And there
she saw a pair of the softest moccasins that ever were made. They were
of pale pink and yellow, and all dotted with dark little bead-spots;
and they fitted as easily as her own dainty skin. Then the girl
papoose was grateful, and she begged the Great Spirit that He would
make many and many another pair of just such comfortable shoes for
every other little barefoot maid in all the world. That not one single
child should ever suffer what the girl papoose had suffered."

"Did He?" asked Gaspar, as interested as Kitty.

"Yes. Surely. The prayer of the unselfish and innocent is always
granted. He sent a voice out of the sky and bade the child look all
about her. So she did, and the whole wide prairie was a-bloom with
more pink and yellow 'shoes' than all the children in all the earth
could ever wear. They were growing right out of the hard ground,
reaching up to be plucked and worn. So she cried out aloud in her
gratitude: 'Oh, the moccasin flower! the moccasin flower!' and ever
since then this shoe-like blossom has been beloved of all the children
in the world. But, because the heat burns as well as the cold pinches,
it blooms nowadays at all times and seasons of the year. A few flowers
here, a few there; but quite enough for any child to find--who has
the right spirit."

"Kitty must have had the spirit, mustn't she, Other Mother? That day
when her feets were so tired and the good Feather-man found her.
'Cause she had lots and lots of them; only she went to sleep and they
all solemned down. And----"

Gaspar started suddenly and held up a warning hand. His quick ear had
caught the sound of approaching feet, crushing boldly through the
cavern, like the tread of one who knows his way well and is coming to
his own.

Wahneenah had also heard, though she had continued her story, making
no sign that she was inwardly disturbed. But she now paused and
listened whether this footfall were one she knew, either of friend or
foe. Then a bush cracked behind them, and Gasp