SELLING
In his wagon
my father drives
to the trading post.
He takes the lambs
and he takes me, too.
He wants me to know
about selling.
He tells me that sometimes
he trades the lambs,
and sometimes
he gives them in payment
for a debt.
This time
he will sell them
to the trader.
When we get to the trading post
the trader looks at the lambs.
Then he tells my father
how much he will pay.
I wonder if the lambs
like to have my father
sell them to the trader.
My father sells the lambs
for hard round money
to Hosteen White Man
at the trading post.
Then he chooses cans of food
to put into his wagon,
and he gives Hosteen White Man
some of the round hard money
back again.
My father calls this selling,
but I think
it is a game
they play together,
Hosteen White Man and
my father at the trading post.
My father likes this game of selling.
He did not tell me, but, someway,
I know that he likes it.
