d, though they
knew thee not as the great God; oh thou to whom my mother taught me to
pray, show me the way to happiness. I would my life should be as my mother
wished it to be--a little light. I would do my best in the right place. Is
love for the white man the way to happiness? Is it the way in which I
should go? Answer as by fire. I beg of thee. Answer me as by fire, oh,
thou great God of the Indian."

Motionless the horse and his rider stood as the moments passed by, one,
two, three. The red of the sunset enfolded them and God was very near.

Suddenly far to the south there rose a tiny black cloud. Very tiny it was,
yet it grew and it grew. It blotted out the red and then the yellow and
then the gold, and then the whole sky was dark and the wind blew chill.

Slowly Litahni's arms relaxed and her head fell to the mane of the horse.
When she lifted it, her face looked tired and worn, but over it there was
a look of peace. Patting the mane of the horse, she said:

"Thank you for bringing me here, Fleetfoot. The Great Spirit has answered
and I shall stay here with Father and with you. To love selfishly is to
blot out all the beautiful. He who would be my chief must not want me to
run away from helping and giving. He must help me to serve my people. The
Great Spirit has answered by fire and I am content. I will stay here and
serve my people in the way my mother taught me to do, and I will wait for
the one whom the Great Spirit will send to me some day to be my Chief."

Then slowly Fleetfoot picked his way over the narrow trail in the
darkness, and, because it was late, the white man had come and gone away
alone. But Litahni, bending low over the couch where her father should
sleep, smiled as she stretched the skins in place for the night. Even as
the animals had given their skins that her father might be warm, so she
was ready to give her little light to make him happy and comfortable, even
as Owaissa, her noble mother, had done.

And Litahni was content.

A PARABLE OF GIRLHOOD

Behold a girl went forth to walk on the highway leading to life. And as
she walked there grew up beneath her feet flowers of every kind and
color.

"Ah!" she said, "I will gather a sheaf of flowers to carry with me, for
then, surely, I shall be welcome when I come to the gate at the end of
this way. I will gather what seemeth to me to be the most beautiful of all
the flowers that grow about me. They shall be my gift to the one wh