"Then holding her child close to her heart the brave woman stepped to the edge, closed her eyes, and leaped into the valley below,—the valley in which stood her wigwam."
Kate paused. The girls were hanging breathlessly on her words. Sallie
Davis and Mattie Hastings were crying, while Edna Whitely and Mollie
Long drew nearer.
"Oh, don't stop," gasped Patty Sands, "please go on, Miss Kate. I'm all excited."
Kate laughed.
"Do let me get my breath, girls. I had no idea it would take me so long."
"There fell no rain that night, but the people as they marched down into the valley thought of nothing but the sacrifice. Probably had it rained they would not have known it. They were silent, thinking with admiration of the wonderful act of heroism that they had just witnessed.
"The next day searching parties started out to seek the bodies of the mother and child, but not a trace could be found.
"'The Great Spirit has taken them in the flesh,' they said. 'Perhaps He is angry that we allowed it.'
"Everyone grew frightened. None seemed to care to speak. Suddenly a low peal of thunder was heard, then a louder one, after which came a flash of lightning.
"'A storm!" they cried, 'the sacrifice has not been in vain,' and they fell to their knees.