?"

"Tell my mother I am strong--and I feel her prayers when the sun comes
up. Tell the governor I stay to learn what the white god does for the
red men; when I have things to tell the people I will come back to
Povi-whah."

But the ice of that winter melted, and the summer bore its fruit, and
the second spring time had come to the land before Tahn-te crossed the
mesas and stood at his mother's door.

"Thanks--that you have come," she said, and wept, and he held her hand
and did not know the things to say, only:--"Thanks that our gods have
brought me back."

"And the magic of the white man?"

"It is here," and he opened a bag made of buffalo skin, and in it were
books and papers covered with written words. She looked on them with
awe. Her son was only a boy but he had won that which was precious,
and earned honors from the men of her tribe and her clan.

"Not to me must you tell it first," she said--"The Ruler will hear
you, and the governor,--they will decide if it is to be known, or if
it is to be secret."

The old men sprinkled prayer meal--and smoked medicine smoke over the
books to lift any lingering curses from the white men's god, and then
the boy opened the pages and made clear how the marks stood for words,
and the words put all together stood for the talk of the white god. It
was a thing of wonder to the council.

"And it is a strong god?" asked the Ruler.

"It is strong for war:--not for peace," said the boy.

"Ka-yemo brought back the words of the medicine-man of the grey
blanket who talked of their god. All his talk was of peace and of love
in the heart. Is that true?"

"It is true. He was a good man. It may be that some men are born so
good that even the gods of the men of iron cannot make them evil. And
Padre Luis was born into the world like that."

"We listen to you to hear of the moons and the suns since you went
away."

The boy told of the fruitless search to the east for the wonderful
land of the slave's romance, where the natives used golden bowls
instead of earthen vessels for food, where each soldier was so sure of
gaining riches that the weight of provisions carried was small lest
the animals be not strong enough to carry all the gold and the food
also.

The old men laughed much at this search for the symbol of the Sun
Father along the waters of the Mischipi, and commended the wise men of
Ci-cu-ye who had the foresight to plan the romance, and to send the
slave to lead the adv