“It is his heart that speaks! Mahaska has not pined because this little flower opened its eyes to console her for the chief’s absence.”
She held up the babe to his admiring gaze.
“Is he not brave and beautiful?” she cried.
The chief looked at him with a sort of wonder, not daring even to touch his new treasure, so full of strange thoughts which he could not fathom that he was quite speechless. The babe awoke and looked around; his large black eyes dwelt wonderingly on the chief.
“See how brave he looks,” said Mahaska; “the chief will find a great warrior in his son.”
“Mahaska will be happy and content now,” he said, gravely.
“She was so before,” replied the young mother.
“Sometime her face was sad—the wilderness was dark and made her youth gloomy.”
“It is Mahaska’s home,” she replied; “she is among her people and asks no more.”
He looked fondly down upon her, with a betrayal of feeling which habit did not often permit him to reveal.