The Watchers of the Plains: A Tale of the Western PrairiesCullum, Ridgwell
General
The Watchers of the Plains: A Tale of the Western Prairies
Cullum, Ridgwell
Western stories
But in all this Seth reckoned without his host. Such glorious eyes, such a
charming face as Rosebud possessed were not likely to belong to a girl
devoid of the instincts of her sex. As she grew up her perspective
changed. She saw things in a different light. Seth no longer appealed to
her as a sort of uncle, or even father. She saw in him a young man of
medium good looks, a strong, fine figure. A man who had no idea of the
meaning of the word fear; a man who had a way of saying and doing things
which often made her angry, but always made her glad that he said and did
them. Furthermore, she soon learned that he was only twenty-eight.
Therefore, she resented many things which she had hitherto accepted as
satisfactory. She made up her wilful mind that it didn't please her to
call him "Daddy" Seth any longer.
Those six years brought another change; a change in the life of the
wood-cutter of White River. He still lived in his log hut, but he had
taken to himself a wife, the beautiful orphaned daughter of Big Wolf, and
sister of the reigning chief, Little Black Fox. Whatever may have been
Nevil Steyne's position before, he was completely ostracized by his
fellows now, that is by all but the folk at White River Farm. Men no
longer suggested that he had "taken the blanket"; they openly asserted
it.
The reason of Nevil Steyne's toleration by the White River Farm people was
curious. It was for Rosebud's sake; Rosebud and Wanaha, the wife of the
renegade wood-cutter. The latter was different from the rest of her race.
She was almost civilized, a woman of strong, honest character in spite of
her upbringing. And between Rosebud and this squaw a strong friendship had
sprung up. Kindly Rube and his wife could not find it in their hearts to
interfere, and even Seth made no attempt to check it. He looked on and
wondered without approval; and wonder with him quickly turned into keen
observation.
And it is with this strange friendship that we have to deal now.
Inside the log hut on the White River, Wanaha was standing before a small
iron cook-stove preparing her husband's food. It was the strangest sight
imaginable to see her cooking in European fashion. Yet she did it in no
uncertain manner. She learned it all because she loved her white husband,
just as she learned to speak English, and to dress after the manner of
white women. She went further. With the assistance of the missionary and
Rosebud she learned to read and sew, and to care for a house. And all this
labor of a great love brought her the crowning glory of legitimate
wifehood with a renegade white man, and the care of a dingy home that no
white girl would have faced. But she was happy. Happy beyond all her
wildest dreams in the smoke-begrimed tepee of her father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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