Thereupon a slender, graceful lad came smilingly forward and, without self-consciousness or egotism, began his story. In the words Julie wrote for the Elmertown Record it was as follows:
“White Feather was fine scout who know much of wild-wood life, but some time he little know how to apply his lesson to his wants. One day he alone in camp. Him friends go on long walk-path, but White Feather lazy and no like walk on warm day. He say he get sleep for hour when camp quiet.
“We-e-ll—White Feather find sun very hot as shine on tee pee, and it make air too hot for sleep inside. Now he ’member a cool shade under pine trees, so he move tee pee over, but now he no find how to raise tee pee once again. He work and work and now he pitch so it stand alright, but it very difrent like before. And so he make it stand: He take the nine pegs and drive ’em in ground like this:”
Then John demonstrated the trick. He took nine sticks and pushed them into the soft earth, then he took a small rope that represented the tent line, and this he wound back and forth about the sticks till he had ten straight rows formed of the line. Each row was complete and each line was part of an angle. Then he looked over at the scouts and smiled as he said: “How White Feather do?”
With a bow he retired and the sister smiled as she said: “John wants to know if the girl scouts will try and do his trick?”
The girl scouts, in duty bound, tried to accomplish the trick which had looked so simple, but they found it was not so easy as it had seemed. Finally, while the young Navajos smiled delightedly, they had to give it up. Then the young lad explained how it was done.
“We now will hear a class game which the pupils like very much,” announced the teacher, glancing at a memorandum she held. She then called upon certain pupils and they got up with alacrity to take their places as designated.
“This game, I must explain to the visitors, is called our Nature Game. Each player chooses a profession for himself, such as canoeman, forester, birdman, star-gazer, hunter, swimmer and so on. Each one who chooses his work must be well acquainted with all the lines of that choice. For instance, the fisherman must know twenty different kinds of fish and describe them; the birdman must know twenty kinds of birds; the forester, twenty kinds of trees; and so on through the game.”
The teacher next proceeded to place the players in such a manner that no one of them could whisper and help another, though the Superior explained that there was more honor in class studies with these young Indians than one finds in white schools.
“Now, friends, I begin to tell a story, and during the course of my telling I find I am at a loss for the information I need, so I have to call upon my aids to assist me. Are you all ready, aids?” The Navajos laughingly nodded and waited eagerly for the sister to begin. Then followed a lively contest between the pupils.