the same dazzlin' kind it always was. I 'low I'm proud of
her, and no mistake. Hello! What's yonder? An Indian, on horseback,
a-stoppin' to this place! What's he after? His face is painted black,
too. There's Sunny Maid going out to talk with him, and Wahneeny, too.
Must be somethin' up."

"There's always somethin' up, where there's an Indian. I hate 'em, an'
they know it."

"I guess they do, ma. Wahneeny, for instance, and--Shucks! That long,
lanky, copper-face out back there, settin' flat on the ground, trying
to pitch jack-knives with a lot of other boys, white ones; he's the
chap that hung around our place so much--the chicken-stealer. I'm
going to speak to him."

"And I'm going to get him took up, just as soon as the Captain gets
back, for setting our house afire. It wouldn't have happened if I'd
been home; but you never could be trusted to look after things."

Abel thought it time to change the subject, and retreated, while
Mercy's attention became riveted upon the group before the house. The
faces of all three were very grave, and Wahneenah, who had come across
to nurse a sick child, paid no heed to its fretful calls for her. The
Indian horseman tarried but a brief time, then wheeled about and rode
westward over the prairie, avoiding the regular road and the mud
where the Smiths had suffered such annoyance.

Wahneenah returned to her charge, and the Sun Maid disappeared in the
direction of the Fort. Before Mercy could decide whether to follow or
not, the girl reappeared, and her old friend viewed her with
amazement. She had mounted the Snowbird, which looked no older than
when Mercy had watched her gallop away across the prairie, and had
slung the famous White Bow upon her saddle horn. About her floating
hair she had wound a fillet of white beads and feathers, and fastened
the White Necklace of Lahnowenah, the Giver, around her fair throat.
She sat her horse as only one trained to the saddle from infancy could
have done, and her commanding figure seemed perfect in every outline.

"To the land's sake! Ain't she splendid! I never saw such a sight.
Never. Never. Abel! Abel! A-b-e-l!!"

"Yes, yes; what? Mercy, Mercy Smith, hold your tongue! Don't you know
folks can't bawl in a settlement as they do in the backwoods? What
ails you? I'm coming as fast as a man in reason can. Hey? Kitty? Well,
why didn't you say so? Where? Out front? My--land! Well, well, well!
It ain't--it can't be--it is! Well, Kitty girl, yo