she was wiping. "I wouldn't have a squaw livin'
so near my door, an' that's a fact."

Kitty now understood that these people were speaking of Wahneenah, and
listened intently.

"Oh! I ain't afraid of her. Not that. But I never did like her, nor
she me. She's sullen an' top-lofty. Why, you'd think I wasn't no
better than the dirt under her feet, to see her sometimes. She was
good to the childern, I'll 'low, afore me an' Abel took 'em in. But
that's four years ago, an' I've cared for 'em ever since. Sometimes I
think she's regular bewitched 'em, they dote on her so. If you believe
me, they'll listen to her leastest word sooner 'n a whole hour of my
talk!"

"I shouldn't be surprised," quietly commented one young matron, who
was jogging her own baby to sleep by tipping her chair violently back
and forth upon its four legs.

Continued Mercy:

"She wouldn't eat a meal of victuals with me if she was starvin'. Yet
I've treated her Christian. Only this mornin' I give her leave to fry
cakes for herself, an' even have some syrup, but she wouldn't touch to
do it. Yes; fifty dollars of good government money would be more to
me 'n she is, an' she'd be took care of, I hear, along with all the
rest is caught. It's time the country was rid of the Indians an' white
folks had a chance. There's all the while some massacrein' an'
fightin' goin' on somewhere."

"Oh! I guess the government just puts 'em under lock an' key, in a
guard-house, or some such place, till it gets enough to send away off
West somewheres. I'd get the fifty dollars, if I was you, and march
her off. She'll be puttin' notions into the youngsters' heads first
you see an' makin' trouble."

"I don't know just how to manage it. Abel, he's queer an' sot. He's
gettin' tired, though, of some things, himself."

"Manage it easy enough. Like fallin' off a log. My man could do you
that good turn. She could be took along in our wagon as far as the
Agency. Then, next time he comes by with his grist on his road to
mill, he could fetch you the money. I'd do it, sure. I only wish I had
an Indian to catch as handy as she is." Having given this advice,
Mercy's guest sat down.

There was a rush of small feet and the Sun Maid confronted them. Her
blue eyes blazed with indignation, her face was white, and her hair,
which the day's activity had loosed from its braid, streamed backward
as if every fibre quivered with life. With heaving breast and clenched
hands, she faced them al