With these words, the Indian woman stooped and laid her hand upon the child's head; then slowly entered her lodge and let its curtains fall behind her. There was an unusual sternness about her demeanor which impressed Kitty greatly; so that it was with a very sober face that she herself gathered up her burdens and returned to the cabin. Yet on the short way thither she met Gaspar, who beckoned to her from behind the shelter of a haystack, motioning silence. "But you mustn't keep me, Gaspar boy. Mother Mercy is terribly hurried this morning, and now, for some reason, Other Mother has stopped helping and has gone home to the tepee. If I don't work, it will about crush her down, Mercy says." "Hang Mercy! There. I don't mean that. I wish you wouldn't always look so scared when I get mad. I am mad to-day, Kit. Mad clear through. I've got to be around amongst folks, too, for a while; but the first minute you get, you come to that pile of logs near Wahneenah's place, and I'll have something to tell you." "No you won't! No you won't! I know it already. I heard father Abel talking. There is to be a horse race, after the harvesting and the supper are over. There is a new man, or family, moved into the neighborhood and he is a horse trader. I heard all about it, sir!" "You heard that? Did you hear anything else? About Wahneenah and money?" "Only what she told me herself"; repeating the Indian woman's words. "Then she knows, poor thing!" cried Gaspar, indignantly. CHAPTER XIII. THE HARVESTING. Kitty had no time to ask further explanation. Already there was an ox team driving up to the cabin and, scanning the prairies, she saw others on the way, so merely stopped to cry, eagerly: "They've come! The folks have come!" before she hastened in with the butter and to see if she could in any way help Mercy dress for the great occasion. She was just in time, for the plump housewife was vainly struggling to fasten the buttons of a new lilac calico gown which she had made: "A teeny tiny mite too tight. I didn't know I was gettin' so fat, I really didn't." "Oh! it's all right, dear Mother Mercy. It looked just lovely that day you tried it on. I'll help you. You're all trembling and warm. That's the reason it bothers." She was so deft and earnest in her efforts that Mercy submitted without protest, and in this manner succeeded in "making herself fit to be seen by folks" about the moment that they arrived to observe. Then everything else was forgotten, amid the greetings and gayety that followed. For out of what purported to be a task the whole community was making a frolic. While the men repaired to the golden fields to reap the grain the women hurried to the smooth grassy place where the harvest-dinner was to be enjoyed out-of-doors.