Overland journeys to the Pacific -- Juvenile fiction; Shawnee Indians -- Juvenile fiction; Siksika Indians -- Juvenile fiction
In that humble home, on the upper margin of the straggling town of St.
Louis, Jack Halloway introduced George and Victor Shelton and Deerfoot
to his mother. She was a sprightly little lady, who could not have
weighed a hundred pounds, and whose soft, wavy, white hair and pink
cheeks and regular features spoke of the unusual beauty that was hers
when she was the belle of the town. She had a serene beauty and
winsomeness that warmed the hearts of the callers from the moment they
first saw her.
As soon as the introductions and greetings were over, Jack caught his
mother in his arms and tossed her as high as the ceiling would permit,
catching her as she descended and kissing her as if she were a little
child. Then, waving the others to seats, he dropped into the single
rocking chair and held her on his knee during the conversation that
followed. Her soul was wrapped up in this massive boy with the strength
of a giant, and her happiness over his restoration to her after her
years of prayer had a pathos and sweetness that nothing else in all the
world could give.
When the chatter had gone on for a few minutes Jack drew his mother's
face down beside his own and whispered:
"Did you ever see as handsome a chap as that young Indian sitting over
there in the corner? Look how modest he is, as if he didn't wish to be
noticed. Didn't you remember, when I told you his name is Deerfoot,
that he's the chap that made me throw away my flask of whiskey and was
the cause of my becoming a _man_?"
"No," replied the astonished parent, "I didn't recall it. I must have a
talk with him before he leaves us."
It was arranged after supper that George and Victor should go to the
home of Dick Burley to sleep. Room could have been made for them in the
cabin of Jack Halloway by letting the three rest on the floor, and he
and his mother would have been pleased; but the brothers showed good
taste by accepting the invitation of Burley, at whose house, for the
first time in many months, they slept in a bed. There was happy content
in that home also, for what loving, devoted wife is not thankful when
her husband is restored to her and is in his right mind?
That humble home where Jack Halloway smoked his pipe, with his mother
knitting beside him and Deerfoot a little way off in his chair, was the
picture of serene, grateful pleasure on the cool summer night, long
ago, when the three sat in converse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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