“No,” said Hugh, “I don’t expect it of them, but if they don’t come to understand it very soon they will have to suffer again just what they suffered two years ago.”
“Well,” said Jack, “it’s mighty hard lines; it’s heartbreaking to think of.”
“So it is,” said Hugh. “I feel mighty badly whenever I think of it, but I reckon it’s the law. I expect the white people had to go through an awful lot of suffering before they got to the point where ‘most every man realized that he had to work hard for a living, and I reckon if you look around back where you live you’ll find that there are a good many people in those big cities there that don’t realize this yet.”
“Yes,” said Jack, “I suppose there are, but these Indians are so kindly and generous and hospitable that I feel a personal sympathy for each one of them that, of course, I don’t feel for the inefficient people back East.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “that’s natural, of course. You know these people and you don’t know the others.”
Soon after they got back to the trader’s store dinner was ready, and after dinner they lounged about the store talking with Bruce.
CHAPTER IV
A MEDICINE PIPE CEREMONY
TOWARD the middle of the afternoon a wagon drove up to the store and Bruce’s wife, carrying a baby, came out and got in and said a few words to her husband. He rose and walked toward the wagon and then turned and said, “I’m just going over with the woman to Red Eagle’s camp; the baby’s been sick and she wants to have him doctor it. He’s going to unwrap his medicine pipe. Do you men want to go along? I don’t know if Jack has ever seen a medicine pipe unwrapped.”
“No,” said Hugh, “I reckon he hasn’t. What do you say, son? Do you want to go?”
“You bet, Hugh,” said Jack. “I’d be mighty glad to go. We won’t be in the way, will we, Mr. Bruce?”