Two Arrows: A Story of Red and WhiteStoddard, William O.
General
Two Arrows: A Story of Red and White
Stoddard, William O.
Indians of North America -- Fiction
These uncommonly well-behaved pale-faces meant to dig a hole into the
side of that mountain and get gold out of it, and they were going to
build a stone "lodge" and stay there. Sile explained to them, as well as
he could, a purpose he had formed of making a great farm in that valley,
and raising all sorts of things to feed the miners, and of having a town
there, with schools and churches for the Indians, and a public library
and a saw-mill and a grist-mill and a blacksmith-shop and a hotel. The
main idea obtained by Two Arrows was that in a little while the valley
would be full of horses of the best kinds. Na-tee-kah went beyond that
and got a picture into her mind of a big stone lodge, where a trader
would live and have for sale a wonderful heap of all such things as the
white squaws dressed themselves up with. She went to sleep at last, with
her black eyes half dazzled by a vision of bright colors and
glitterings, and had a dream that the trader had come and was ready to
trade almost anything for the skin of a grisly bear. As for Two Arrows,
not all that could be said about mines and farms could drive from him
one grand ambition, that had taken deep root as he studied the many
possessions of those pale-faces. Somehow or other, he meant to obtain a
rifle. His father had a good one, and so had each of the acknowledged
warriors of his band, but all the boys were as yet forced to put up with
bows and arrows. Some of the braves even carried revolvers, and the
hunting had been so poor that they were well supplied with ammunition.
Two Arrows had learned from Sile that there were extra rifles and
pistols, and no end of cartridges, in those wagons, but everybody knew
that all that sort of thing had to be paid for, and Two Arrows lay awake
a long time, feverishly wondering what he could find among those
mountains to buy a rifle with, and a revolver and some ammunition. He
felt that he should be a mere boy, after all, and not a full-grown
brave, until he could exchange his bow and arrows for weapons which
would kill a bear at long range. He wished never to have to wait for
another on the top of any rock. It was the only point in which he could
see that Sile had any real advantage over him to balance the humiliation
of being a pale-face instead of the son of a Nez Perce chief. He was
compelled to admit one more in the morning, for he had forgotten the
fishing-rods and hooks and lines, and Sile was up before it was light,
ready to begin his duty of keeping the camp supplied with provisions.
"We won't walk this time," he said, in a very business-like way. "We'll
just ride across to the river and catch enough for breakfast and hurry
back. None of the men can be spared from their work."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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