Adventure stories, American; Fiction; Short stories; Western stories
"So I, Ebbits, journeyed down to Cambell Fort to collect the debt.
Jones, who is chief trader, looked at me, and he laughed. He made great
laughter, and would not give payment. I went to the medicine-man, what
you call missionary, and had large talk about the bad water and the
payment that should be mine. And the missionary made talk about other
things. He talk about where Moklan has gone, now he is dead. There be
large fires in that place, and if missionary make true talk, I know
that Moklan will be cold no more. Also the missionary talk about where
I shall go when I am dead. And he say bad things. He say that I am
blind. Which is a lie. He say that I am in great darkness. Which is a
lie. And I say that the day come and the night come for everybody just
the same, and that in my village it is no more dark than at Cambell
Fort. Also, I say that darkness and light and where we go when we die
be different things from the matter of payment of just debt for bad
water. Then the missionary make large anger, and call me bad names of
darkness, and tell me to go away. And so I come back from Cambell Fort,
and no payment has been made, and Moklan is dead, and in my old age I
am without fish and meat."
"Because of the white man," said Zilla.
"Because of the white man," Ebbits concurred. "And other things because
of the white man. There was Bidarshik. One way did the white man deal
with him; and yet another way for the same thing did the white man deal
with Yamikan. And first must I tell you of Yamikan, who was a young man
of this village and who chanced to kill a white man. It is not good to
kill a man of another people. Always is there great trouble. It was not
the fault of Yamikan that he killed the white man. Yamikan spoke always
soft words and ran away from wrath as a dog from a stick. But this
white man drank much whiskey, and in the night-time came to Yamikan's
house and made much fight. Yamikan cannot run away, and the white man
tries to kill him. Yamikan does not like to die, so he kills the white
man.
"Then is all the village in great trouble. We are much afraid that we
must make large payment to the white man's people, and we hide our
blankets, and our furs, and all our wealth, so that it will seem that
we are poor people and can make only small payment. After long time
white men come. They are soldier white men, and they take Yamikan away
with them. His mother make great noise and throw ashes in her hair, for
she knows Yamikan is dead. And all the village knows that Yamikan is
dead, and is glad that no payment is asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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