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Title: The Talking Leaves
An Indian Story

Author: William O. Stoddard

Release Date: June 23, 2007 [eBook #21913]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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THE TALKING LEAVES

An Indian Story

by

WILLIAM O. STODDARD

[Frontispiece: "Halt! They've brought out the boys"]

Harper & Brothers Publishers
New York and London
Copyright, 1882, by Harper & Brothers
Copyright, 1910, by William O. Stoddard

THE TALKING LEAVES

AN INDIAN STORY

CHAPTER I

"Look, Rita! look!"

"What can it mean, Ni-ha-be?"

"See them all get down and walk about."

"They have found something in the grass."

"And they're hunting for more."

Rita leaned forward till her long hair fell upon the neck of the
beautiful little horse she was riding, and looked with all her eyes.

"Hark! they are shouting."

"You could not hear them if they did."

"They look as if they were."

Ni-ha-be sat perfectly still in her silver-mounted saddle, although her
spirited mustang pony pawed the ground and pulled on his bit as if he
were in a special hurry to go on down the side of the mountain.

The two girls were of about the same size, and could not either of them
have been over fifteen years old. They were both very pretty, very
well dressed and well mounted, and they could both speak in a strange,
rough, and yet musical language; but there was no other resemblance
between them.

"Father is there, Rita."

"Can you see him?"

"Yes, and so is Red Wolf."

"Your eyes are wonderful. Everybody says they are."

Ni-ha-be might well be proud of her coal-black eyes, and of the fact
that she could see so far and so well with them. It was not