MINNEHAHA, Laughing Water, otherwise known as Madge Morton, you are the loveliest person I ever saw," announced Phyllis Alden, while Eleanor and Lillian gazed at Madge in her Indian costume with equally admiring eyes.
"See, here is the description of Minnehaha. Doesn't it sound like Madge?" Phil went on, reading from a volume of Longfellow:
"'Wayward as the Minnehaha,
With her moods of shade and sunshine,
Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate,
Feet as rapid as the river,
Tresses flowing like the water,
And as musical a laughter.'"
Phyllis paused and Madge swept her a low curtsey. "Thank you, Phil," she said, her blue eyes suddenly misty at her chum's compliment.
It was the day of the great corn feast on the Preston estate, and Madge had been selected to appear in the costume of Minnehaha and to read to the guests certain parts of Hiawatha that referred to the Indian legend of the corn.
All the young people were to appear in the guise of Indians. Phyllis, with her olive skin, black eyes and hair, made a striking Pocahontas.
Phil looked more like an Indian maiden than Madge, but Madge had more dramatic skill. Lillian, with her hair as yellow as the corn, was the paleface princess stolen by the Indians in her babyhood. Eleanor wore an Indian costume, also, but she represented no especial character.
Much against his will David Brewster impersonated Hiawatha. He hated it. He did not wish to come to the entertainment at all, much less in the conspicuous position of the hero of the evening. But Mr. Preston had taken a deep fancy to David. He seemed not to mind the boy's queer, moody ways, and he had a great respect for his practical judgment. Mr. Preston had asked David to remain in his service when the houseboat party disbanded, but David, for reasons that he would not tell, had refused. The boy did not think he could decline to impersonate Hiawatha when Mr. Preston considered that he had paid him a compliment in asking him. In spite of his embarrassment David Brewster was a good representation of a young Indian brave, with his swarthy skin, his dark eyes that flashed fire when his anger was aroused, and his vigorous, muscular body, made lean and hard by his work in the open fields.
In the middle of the Preston estate, between the orchards and the cornfields, a huge platform had been erected with a small stage at one end. The place was decorated with sheaves of wheat, oats and barley, with great stacks of green and yellowing corn standing in the four corners. The platform was filled with chairs and hung with lanterns, some of them made from hollowed-out gourds and pumpkins, to carry out the harvest idea. After the reading of Hiawatha the platform was to be cleared and the young people were to have a dance.
The invitations to the feast read for six o'clock. At seven a dozen open wood fires were roasting the green ears of corn for more than a hundred guests. The long tables under the trees in the yard were laden with every kind of delicious food.