Warrior Gap: A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68. — John Shaqi
Warrior Gap: A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68.King, Charles
General
Warrior Gap: A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68.
King, Charles
Dakota Indians -- Wars -- Fiction; Western stories
"As if I could ever repay Jess for all the loving kindness to my little
girl in her loneliness," said he. No, there was no delicious visiting
with Pappoose that summer, but with what eager interest had she not
devoured the letters telling of the wonderful sights the little far
Westerner saw--the ocean, the great Niagara, the beautiful Point in the
heart of the Highlands, but, above all, that crowned monarch, that
plumed knight, that incomparable big brother, Cadet Captain Marshall
Dean. Yes, he had come to call the very evening of their arrival. He had
escorted them out, Papa and Pappoose, to hear the band playing on the
Plain. He had made her take his arm, "a schoolgirl in short dresses,"
and promenaded with her up and down the beautiful, shaded walks,
thronged with ladies, officers and cadets, while some old cronies took
father away to the mess for a julep, and Mr. Dean had introduced some
young girls, professors' daughters, and they had come and taken her
driving and to tea, and she had seen him every day, many times a day, at
guard mounting, drill, pontooning or parade, or on the hotel piazzas,
but only to look at or speak to for a minute, for of course she was
"only a child," and there were dozens of society girls, young ladies, to
whom he had to be attentive, especially a very stylish Miss Brockway,
from New York, with whom he walked and danced a great deal, and whom the
other girls tried to tease about him. Pappoose didn't write it in so
many words, but Jessie, reading those letters between the lines and
every which way, could easily divine that Pappoose didn't fancy Miss
Brockway at all. And then had come a wonderful day, a wonderful thing,
into the schoolgirl's life. No less than twelve pages did
sixteen-year-old Pappoose take to tell it, and when a girl finds time to
write a twelve-page letter from the Point she has more to tell than she
can possibly contain. Mr. Dean had actually invited her--_her_, Elinor
Merchant Folsom--Winona, as they called her when she was a toddler among
the tepees of the Sioux--Pappoose as the girls had named her at
school--"Nell," as Jessie called her--sweetest name of all despite the
ring of sadness that ever hangs about it--and Daddy had actually smiled
and approved her going to the midweek hop on a cadet captain's broad
chevroned arm, and she had worn her prettiest white gown, and the girls
had brought her roses, and Mr. Dean had called for her before all the
big girls, and she had gone off with him, radiant, and he had actually
made out her card for her, and taken three dances himself, and had
presented such pleasant fellows--first classmen and "yearlings." There
was Mr. Billings, the cadet adjutant, and Mr. Ray, who was a cadet
sergeant "out on furlough" and kept back, but such a beautiful dancer,
and there was the first captain, such a witty, brilliant fellow, who
only danced square dances, and several cadet corporals, all hop
managers, in their red sashes. Why, she was just the proudest girl in
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