“Dear child, I do not doubt it for a moment, and I wish nobody need be more hampered by their clothes than you have been. I see, too, that those simple skirts you have on now are a burden to you, but you’ll soon get used to them. Maybe soon, also, you’ll return to your own home and habits.”
As she said this she sighed and Teddy shrewdly remarked:
“She doesn’t not believe it, though. She allays bweaves herself that-a-way when she doesn’t not sepect fings.”
They all laughed and the mother exclaimed:
“Why, Teddy! How observant! Yet small boys are not the truest prophets. There are other reasons why it is better you should keep your kid garments—”
“Kid, kidder, kiddest. Kid garments, garments of a kid. A pair of kids,” mumbled Jack who had, by this time, quite forgotten the silent rebuke of Carlota’s eyes. Carlos heard the monologue and was inclined to resent it but, instead, found himself listening to Mrs. Burnham.
“So I will wrap them carefully, and mark them with your names and addresses. You should keep them with you. The blankets and the other things which the troopers left with you at Leopard are here in my room. They may be useful to you, and aren’t apt to wear out soon. The blankets are the finest I’ve ever seen, though some of the Indians who pass here, on the march, have those nearly like them.”
“They were gifts to our mother. They were woven by some Navajo women to whom she’d been kind. She was always kind to everybody. My father says that she nursed the sick, gave drink to the thirsty, food to the hungry, and rest to the weary. Oh! dear lady, I think you must be like her!” cried Carlota, impulsively.
Letitia Burnham’s eyes filled. She had already taken the motherless wanderer into her inmost heart and had welcomed her as a gift from God which she was thankful to retain, even for a little time. Yet she was greatly concerned for her small guests, knowing how slight a thing may turn the current of a life, and how doubtful it was that news of their whereabouts would at once bring their absent father.
Before he had retired, Mr. Burnham had promptly acted upon the suggestions in Captain Sherman’s brief note. But, would the telegrams and advertisements reach the eyes for which they were intended? And the Captain’s information had been very scant.