I said, 'Pickett, give my
father a home and I will marry you tomorrow.'

"We were married, but the money did not last long and poor Pickett lost
all ambition save that of watching the 'ticker,' reading the market
reports, and living in the fascinating atmosphere of 'bucket shops,'
gambling in grain, stocks and provisions, as do an army of poor, deluded
would-be speculators.

"There was but one course for me--a boarding-house, and here I have
lived. My father died, and soon after, my husband was stricken with a
lingering illness, which lasted six years ere death relieved him of his
sufferings. It has been a bitter cup, but after all, as my good father
often said, 'It is all for the best. He waters the corn and weeds alike,
and burns up the roses as well as the thistles; trust in God, Junie,'
and so I try to make the most of what I have."

"Mrs. Pickett, it is so hard for me, an Indian born girl, a daughter
taught to pray to the wind, the sun, the rain as animate gods, capable
of doing good or harm, to have that faith you possess--that beautiful
faith in the hereafter, in a God whose heaven and home you know not of,
yet where, you acknowledge, there are no flowers, no birds, no deer, no
giving in marriage, no thirst, and no hunger. What, then, can my
uneducated people be expected to relinquish--that great and Happy
Hunting Ground, which is to be returned to us as it was before the white
man drove us to the setting sun, drove the buffalo into the great sea
and destroyed our homes, our villages, and killed our warriors? It is
hard for Chiquita with all her learning and life among her palefaced
sisters to say, 'Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' But I try to
believe that your life is the better one for the world, for the human
race, and that in the end there will be no more savages, no more
heathens, no more unbelievers."

CHAPTER XVI.

GALLING YOKES OF CIVILIZATION.

In one of the large wholesale houses, a junior partner, much interested
in municipal affairs and whose endorsement was sought by many a
candidate seeking election--for the junior partner wielded a vast
interest in both the secular and Christian life--was presented to
Chiquita and she spent many an hour, at convenient times, discussing the
affairs of mutual interest, he seeking to establish the superiority of
the ways of education and civilization, she accepting the teachings and
attempting to persuade herself that he was right and that s