THE INDIAN BABY AND HER CRADLE
Why is the happy song of the robin heard beside the lodge? Why chirps the cricket so merrily?
Can you not guess? There is a new daughter in the wigwam. Another wood gatherer and fire maker has come to the tribe.
"Bring the new cradle, Nokomis. Let me have the beautiful cradle I have made for my little daughter." And Good Bird, the mother, points with pride to a strange-looking object that is not at all like the cradle your baby sleeps in.
A straight board leans against the inner lining of the lodge. To one side of it is fastened a white doeskin bag which is trimmed with beautiful fringes and beadwork. Can this be a baby's cradle?
Nokomis, the grandmother, opens the bag, which is laced down the middle with colored strings. She makes a bed of soft moss upon the hard board and lays the papoose very straight in its little frame.