[to be continued.]
[AMATEUR INDIANS.]
BY JAMES OTIS.
"It's a shame, that's what it is, and I don't think mothers have got any right to make boys eight years old tend little dried-up-looking babies that can't do anything but cry."
Eddie Barnard's voice expressed the sympathy he felt for his cousin, Charley Harnden, when he found him caring for the baby on that particular Saturday afternoon they had counted on for putting the finishing touches to a large kite which it was believed would outsail any other in the village.
"Boys wasn't made to sit 'round holdin' babies, and I just wish Doctor Abbott hadn't brought this one, 'cause it's just done nothing but plague me ever since it come;" and Charley almost shook his little baby brother, who was sucking his thumb as contentedly as if he hadn't an idea how sadly he was in the way.
"I'll tell you what we might do, and then babies wouldn't bother us anymore," said Eddie, as he jumped to his feet suddenly. "We might turn Injuns, like two I read of in a book Sam Basset lent me. We could be reg'lar Injun chiefs, an' go out to Chickcommon woods to live."
At first Charley was delighted with the idea, and he danced around at great risk of upsetting the baby entirely, but a sudden thought clouded his joy.
"Injuns have wigwams, an' squaws, and ponies, an' we can't get any of them."
"Yes we can; we can catch Tom Downey's old blind horse an' play it was a pony, an' you ain't smart if you don't know where to catch a squaw."
"Where?" asked Charley, breathlessly.
"Ain't there your sister Nellie? Can't we get a lot of grasshoppers an' coax her out behind the meetin'-house to see them? An' then can't we catch her an' tie her, an' drag her by the arms up to the woods, just like any Injuns do?"
"Of course. An' we could get some bed-quilts for a camp."
"Yes, an' we'll name you Biting Tiger, an' I'll be Big Thunder, an' Nellie can be Moon-face, just as it was in the book."
For some moments the boys sat in silent bliss. Then after a time a serious doubt crept into Biting Tiger's heart, and he asked,
"But what will we do for things to eat?"
"Things to eat?" echoed Eddie. "Chiefs don't bother about such things; they just send the squaws out to get it, 'cause that's what squaws are for."
"My! but won't mother be scared when she finds out that she got an Injun to hold the baby?" said Charley, thinking with delight that in his mother's fear he should be more than repaid for all the trouble the little fellow had caused him. "But then she won't be so awfully frightened, for he ain't got anything to scalp if you wanted to do it."
"We can wait till he grows, an' then scalp him 'most every day," said Eddie, consolingly.
Then came the question of how they were to get away, for, valiant chiefs as they were, they could hardly drop the baby on the floor and run.
"I'll tell you what we can do," said Eddie. "I'll go home an' get some ropes to tie Nellie with, an' then I'll go for the grasshoppers. When you hear me holler you send Nellie over, an' put the baby in the cradle, and come over lickety-split, so's to hold the squaw's mouth if she sets up a yell."
Big Thunder started for his mother's clothes-line and some grasshoppers, while Biting Tiger sat holding the baby as quietly as if he had never thought of being an Indian.
Surely there never were two chiefs on the eve of starting in the Indian business so fortunate as these two were, for in a short time after Big Thunder's departure Mrs. Harnden took the baby, and Nellie seated herself on the door-step to play with her doll.
Charley told her of the captive grasshoppers she would see if she went with him; and, clasping her doll firmly in her arms, she started for the meeting-house near by, while Charley followed, ready to spring upon her as soon as he should see his brother chief.
Eddie was prepared for the first act in his new life. He had armed himself with a long carving-knife and fully ten yards of clothes-line, so that he was ready for any desperate attempt at escape the squaw might make.
All unsuspecting the horrible fate that awaited her, Nellie approached the fatal spot, when Big Thunder sprang out, winding the rope around her body a dozen times.
"Why don't you cry, an' screech, an' kick?" asked Charley, thoroughly disappointed because their captive had submitted so quietly.
"What for?" asked Nellie, in surprise.
"Why, 'cause we're Injuns an' you're a squaw we've caught, an' now we're goin' to drag you off to the woods," replied Eddie, brandishing his knife.
"I don't want to be a squaw;" and Nellie now showed signs of making as much of an outcry as the boys could have wished for.
"But you must, and that's all there is about it," said Eddie, sternly; and then he took hold of the ends of the rope, as he shouted to Charley, "Hold your hands over her mouth, while I pull her along."
Charley hardly had time to reply before Big Thunder, with the clothes-line drawn taut over his shoulder, started ahead with a force that threatened to overthrow both captive and captor.
For five minutes there was a thrilling and exciting scene as the chief dashed along, dragging behind him the squaw, who was only half gagged by Biting Tiger.
At the expiration of that time Big Thunder tumbled over a log, striking the ground with a force that caused his nose to bleed, while Nellie, being so suddenly released, fell backward, carrying Biting Tiger with her.
Big Thunder began to cry, but realizing that Indians should not be so particular about a little thump on the nose, urged his companion to "come on," while he forced the captive ahead again.
By the time they reached the first growth of trees that marked the border of the woods the newly made Indians were feeling very warm, and decidedly uncomfortable as to what their mothers might be able to do in the way of capturing them.
Poor Moon-face was crying as if her little heart was breaking, but it was not noisy grief, and it made her captors look at each other very guiltily, since it showed how much suffering they were causing.
The first halt was made when they reached what they supposed to be the very heart of the forest, and Nellie was tied to a fence that had evidently been placed there for the accommodation of Indians with captives. She had recovered from her grief at being dragged from home, and now played contentedly with her doll while the boys tried to make a wigwam. But it was not long before they learned how difficult it was to cut down trees with a carving knife, and by the time they had succeeded in getting about a dozen small branches together they were decidedly hungry.
"We've got to look 'round and find something to eat," said Eddie, after he had withstood the pangs of hunger as long as possible.
"I thought the squaw had to do that;" and Charley looked up in surprise that they were obliged to do any work, after all the trouble of finding and catching a squaw.
"So they do, after they get broke in, but I don't s'pose Nellie could do much toward killing bears and deers until after she gets kind of used to it."
It was sad to think they had a squaw who was not accustomed to the business, and with a sigh Charley released the captive, that all might go in search of food.
It was a long, weary tramp which they had, and it seemed that it must be nearly supper-time, when they suddenly heard a fearful noise among the bushes, as if some enormous animal was coming directly toward them. Then both the Indians turned pale with terror; for what could they do in the way of fighting a bear, with only one carving-knife between them?
Only for a moment did they face the terrible danger, and then both Big Thunder and Biting Tiger started for home as fast as their legs could carry them, while their late captive ran behind, imploring not to be left alone. It was a cowardly flight for two Indians with a captive to make, but the ferocious animal appeared to be pursuing, and they could do no less.
When they reached Charley's home, where Mrs. Harnden could be seen in the sitting-room with the baby in her arms, Eddie's clothes were covered with dirt and the blood that had fallen from his nose; Charley was quite as dirty, although not as bloody as his brother chief, and Nellie's once clean white dress was completely ruined.
The ferocious animal followed them up to the very door of the house, and then it looked more like Benny Cushing's pet calf than it did like a bear.
That night, after the two Indians had settled matters with their respective mothers, both Big Thunder and Biting Tiger wisely concluded that the Indian business was too painful ever to be indulged in again.
THE TWO PETS.
SPITZBERGEN—FISHING FLEET IN GREEN BAY.—From a Sketch by W. H. King, U. S. N.