When the tree flowered

by John G. Neihardt

“There was a man whose name was Against the Clouds. He and his woman were Sans Arcs. They had been visiting with relatives in Grandmother’s Land, and they were on their way back to Bear Butte near Pa Sapa, where the Sans Arcs would be camping. They were traveling alone with two horses to ride and one to pull the drag. It was not very far between sleeps, for they were getting to be old people and they would be tired when there was yet much day. Also, they were having a good time together, because the weather was so pleasant. They were not in a hurry to be at home, because their children were dead and they had no family.

“So Against the Clouds and his woman were riding along slowly where the trail left the creek and began to climb towards a pass in the sharp buttes. These buttes stand tall in a row that is bent like a great bow with the arrow aimed at the sunset; and that is the way the two were going. The man was ahead of the drag-horse and the woman came last. When they were not far from the pass, the woman said, ‘Look! Look over there! Somebody has died here since we came through with the young grass.’ So Against the Clouds stopped his horse and looked. ‘It is so,’ he said; for yonder high up on the side of the butte, not very far away, was a new scaffold. And the woman said, ‘I wonder if it is somebody we know.’ The man looked hard awhile, then he said, ‘Do you see how the crows are doing? They fly around but do not come close. Something is scaring them.’ And the woman said, ‘There is something sitting on the scaffold. Maybe it is a buzzard.’ And when the man had looked hard for a while longer, he said, ‘That does not look like any buzzard I ever saw sitting. Let us go and see.’

“So they left the drag-horse grazing by the trail and rode over a little way to see what was sitting yonder on the scaffold. All at once the woman cried out and stopped her horse. It surely was not a buzzard up there. ‘Let us get away from here!’ she said, and she could hardly make the words, she was so frightened. But Against the Clouds just sat still on his horse, looking and listening, with his woman behind him, looking and listening. It was the bundle that was sitting up there with its face turned the other way—a little bundle! And as they stared with their mouths open, hardly breathing, there came a thin sound like a sick child crying and whimpering. Then the man said, ‘Nobody is dead here. I think they put somebody up there too soon. I will go and see.’ So he did, while the woman waited, for she was still frightened. And when the man had looked, he called to his woman. ‘Come here quick and do not be afraid! It is a sick child, and it may die if we do not hurry to help it.’ Then the woman was not afraid any more, and she went in a hurry to help.

“So that is how the little girl who died came back to this world again. And when the two old people had unwrapped her, they made a camp by a spring that ran cool among pines just beyond the pass. And there they washed the little girl very carefully with warm water. Also they made some broth and put it in her mouth a few drops at a time, for she was still more in the spirit world than here.

“Against the Clouds and his woman did not sleep much all night. They sat beside the sick little girl and gave her drops of broth once in a while, for they were afraid she would die again and they wanted to keep her for their own. They had no children for their old age, and the woman was already too old to have any more. While the little girl was sleeping, they talked together and made a plan. If the girl lived, they would take her home with them and say they adopted her in Grandmother’s Land. They were very good old people and always spoke straight words; but they wanted a daughter so much that they made this story to tell so that they could keep her. They prayed hard too; and when it was morning, they could see that the girl would live. And the woman said, ‘Let us give our daughter a good name. I think it would be well to call her Plenty White Cows. It is a sacred name, and surely Wakon Tonka has sent her to us from the spirit land. Also, it is a pretty name. I always liked it.’ And the man said, ‘Let it be so. We will call her Plenty White Cows.’ So they did.

“Against the Clouds and his woman stayed in camp there until the girl was well enough to talk, but she could not remember much. She would just look and look at the two old people, and sometimes she would cry a little. They asked what her father’s name was, and she could not tell. She did not know her own name either, so they told her the new name, and she would say it again and again.

“Afterwhile she could remember that she was sleeping and that a man came singing. He touched her and told her to ’waken, for some people were coming to take her back. So she awoke and tried to get up. It must have been hard to crawl out of the bundle, but somehow she did part way. And when she sat up, there was no man, but only a crow flying off. Then she was frightened and began crying, and right away the people that the singing crow-man told about were there. Then she did not remember any more until she was tasting broth.

“The old people were so good to her that in a little while she loved them very much and learned to call them father and mother. And when she was well enough to walk a little, they broke camp and started for Bear Butte with Plenty White Cows riding on the drag.

“When Against the Clouds and his woman came back home with their new daughter, their friends would come to see and bring gifts. But the little girl would hide behind her foster-mother and peek around at the faces. For a long while she seemed to be looking for somebody she knew, but when anyone spoke to her, she would hide behind her foster-mother and cry. Maybe she was looking for her own father and mother like people she had seen in a dream. Her foster-parents said she was very bashful; but people talked about it and said she was queer.

“So Against the Clouds and his woman had Plenty White Cows all for themselves, and they were so fond of her that people said they were foolish about her. Also, she loved them very much and was always helping her foster-mother. It was not long before the foster-parents noticed that she knew things she could not know unless a spirit told her. Sometimes she would talk to people they could not see and learn something that was true but that she could not know by herself. That is the way she found her foster-father’s horse when it was lost and no one could find it.