American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
“For the twenty ponies which we have got, the Blackfeet will carry forth
the word of Cold-heart; for the Blackfeet keep their treaties, being
honest men.”
[Illustration: 0251]
An’ so it turns that the Blackbird is shot full of arrows until he
bristles like the quills on the back of Kagh, the Hedgepig. But Young
Wolf is taken to the Rosebud, an’ they are married. The Young Wolf would
have said: “No!” for he did not understand; but Dull Knife showed him
first a war-axe an’ next the Rosebud. An’ the Rosebud was more beautiful
in the eye of youth than any war-axe; besides Young Wolf was many days
march from the lodge of his father, Openhand, an’ marriage is better
than death. Thinking all of which, the Young Wolf did not say “no” but
said “yes,” an’ at the wedding there was a great feast, for the Dull
Knife was a big chief an’ rich.
Ma-ma, the Woodpecker, stood on the top of a dead tree an’ saw the
wedding; an’ when it was over, he flew straight an’ told Moh-Kwa so that
Moh-Kwa might know.
When Young Wolf an’ the Rosebud on their return were a day’s ride from
the Sioux, Moh-Kwa went to the lodge of Coldheart an’ said:
“Come, great plotter, an’ meet your son an’ his new squaw.”
An’ Coldheart came because Moh-Kwa took him by his belts an’ ran with
him; for Moh-Kwa was so big an’ strong he could run with a pony an’ its
rider in his mouth.
Moh-Kwa told Coldheart how the Blackbird gave Dull Knife the black arrow
an’ was shot with all the arrows of five quivers. Coldheart groaned like
the buffalo when he dies. Then Moh-Kwa showed him where Young Wolf
came on with the beautiful Rosebud; and that he was followed by twenty
pack-ponies which carried the presents of Dull Knife for his daughter
an’ his new son.
“An’ now,” said Moh-Kwa, “you have seen enough; for you have seen that
you have made your foe happy an’ killed your own son. Also, I have
cheated the Catfish people twice; once with the Big Medicine Elk an’
once with the Lynx, both of whom I gave to the Catfish people an’ took
back. It is true, I have cheated the good Catfish folk who were once my
friends, an’ now they speak hard of me an’ call me a ‘Pawnee,’ the whole
length of the Yellowstone from the Missouri to the Falls. However, Moh
Kwa has something for the Catfish people this time which he will not
take back, an’ by to-morrow’s sun, the river will ring with Moh-Kwa’s
praises.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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