CHAPTER VII.
A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST.
“
She is a spirit. I know that nothing can harm her. Yet many things can harm me. I have no desire to suffer any further anxiety. Therefore—this. My Girl-Child, my White Papoose, come here.”
The Sun Maid reluctantly obeyed. It was the morning after her perilous ride on the back of an untamed horse and her joyful reunion with Gaspar, her old playmate of the Fort. The two were now just without the wigwam of Wahneenah, sitting clasped in each other’s arms, as if fearful that a fresh separation awaited them should they once relinquish this tight hold of one another; and it was in much the same feeling that the foster-mother regarded them.
“But why, Other Mother? I do love my Gaspar boy. I did know him always.”
“You’ve known me two years, Kitty,” corrected the truthful lad. “But I suppose that is as long as you can remember. You’re such a baby.”
“How old is the Sun Maid—as you white people reckon ages?” asked Wahneenah.