hat he was. But now that she mentioned it,
he realized the fact. Fortunately, he was so young and healthy
that the scenes through which he seemed destined to pass at such
frequently-recurring intervals could not really affect his physical
condition for any length of time. To see Wahneenah moving about the
little cavern as calmly as if it were her daily habit to be there, and
to catch the sound of the Sun Maid's joyous laughter, was to make the
present seem the only reality.

"Why, it's another picnic, isn't it? Did the things actually happen
back there as I thought? Were we here all night? I used to have such
terrible dreams, when I lived at the Fort, that, when daylight came, I
could not forget them. I get confused between the dreams and the true
things."

"An empty stomach makes a foolish head. Many a squaw is afraid of her
warrior before he breaks his morning fast, and finds him a lamb after
it is eaten," said Wahneenah, sententiously.

"Gaspar is my warrior, Other Mother; but I am never afraid of him."

"You are afraid of nothing, Kitty!" reproved the boy.

"But I am! I am afraid I shall get nothing to eat at all, if you don't
come!"

So the children ate, and Wahneenah served them. She was herself too
anxious to partake of any food, and under her placid exterior she was
straining every nerve to listen for any outward sounds which might
prove that their refuge had been discovered.

But no sounds came to disturb them, and as the hours passed hope
returned to her; and when the Sun Maid had fallen asleep, weary of
frolic, and Gaspar again questioned her concerning the morning, she
answered, in good faith:

"Probably, it was not half so bad as it seemed. There were many bad
Indians in the village, and it is likely for them that the white
soldiers were searching. They must have gone away long since. By and
by, if nothing happens, we will return to our own tepee, and forget
this morning's fright. The Snake-Who-Leaps will be proud of his pupils
for the way they rode at his bidding."

A shiver ran through the lad's frame, and he crept within the shelter
of Wahneenah's arm.

"But did you not see what happened to him? He lies beneath the
curtains of your lodge, and he will teach us no more. A white soldier
shot him. I saw him fall."

The woman herself had not seen this, and she now sprang to her feet in
a fury of indignation.

"A white man killed him! That grand old brave, who should have lived
to be a hundred