e encampment, she
was not so sure. Her mind was all awhirl. Was this the way to happiness?
What would mother have said? She wanted her to have the best, but what was
the best? It was only a few hours till the sunset and what should she do?
Was there no one to help her?

Suddenly from the roadway below she heard a neigh. It was Fleetfoot, and
he was tired of being tied to a sapling. Now Litahni loved Fleetfoot, her
horse, for they had grown up together, so she hurried to the tree where
she had left him, untied his bridle, jumped on his back and whispered,

"Fly, Fleetfoot! Fly into the sunset. Go fast and go far and let me think
as we fly."

Then the horse sped away toward the north. As they passed the little lake
in the valley it whispered, "Life is not always calm. There must be
tempests. But you can be calm in your inner life and you can be beautiful
through it all."

Up the hill she went, and as the wind blew over her face it seemed to say,
"Why be bent? Why not bend?" At the top, looking far across a distant
plain, her mother's voice seemed to whisper, "Look far ahead, little girl.
Look far ahead. What seems wonderful may prove to be only a shadow."

On they flew. The girl's face was flushed and thoughtful. Soon she must
turn if she would be at the meeting place. Where was Fleetfoot taking her?
Perhaps he knew best what she should do.

Suddenly at a bend in the road Fleetfoot gave a great leap, startling the
girl and almost making her lose her balance. Across the path, a giant tree
had been felled by the lightning and there it lay, prone and helpless.

Then she shuddered. "Fear that which comes quickly and silently and which
strikes at the heart." Only a week before she had not known the white
man--even now her father did not know that she knew him. Ought she to be
afraid? If she met him, it must be silently, in the cover of the dark.

At last Fleetfoot stood, panting and breathless, on the great rock that
topped the cliff. Often had he come here with his mistress, so he waited
for her to dismount. The sky was aflame with color--all red and gold and
yellow. Far to the North there were blues and pinks. What a wonderful
sunset it was! Surely it must be the home of a great, great God.

Litahni sat motionless for a time, drinking in all the glory of the scene.
Then she threw her arms high over her head and, lifting her face into the
sunset, she cried,

"Oh, thou Great Spirit to whom my people have always praye