Fireside Stories for Girls in Their Teens

by Margaret W. Eggleston

But when she, too, had finished, he loved her all the more for her beautiful wish, so he held her closely to him and said:

“But, Litahni, to love and to be loved is a far greater happiness than to lift, or to bend, or to lead the tribe. Leave that to your father. All these things you can do to me and to my people. Would you waste your life here on the plains? Think what I can give you. Your mother longed to go beyond the mountains into the sunrise. Come with me and I will take you there. To love and to be loved is the best that ever comes into a life. And I love you, Litahni! Why should you think of your father? He has many things to think of and has little time for you. I will make you my queen. To-morrow I must go. So to-night, I shall come for 26 my answer after the sun has set. Meet me, dear, by the giant tree near the spring and we will go together. The train leaves not long after the sunset and I will have a horse at the spring on which we can get to the train. Come with me, dear. Forget your people and be my Litahni.”

There was a noise near by—and the white man was gone. But Litahni sat deep in thought. While he had been with her, she longed to go with him. But as she sat now and looked down into the valley at the encampment, she was not so sure. Her mind was all awhirl. Was this the way to happiness? What would mother have said? She wanted her to have the best, but what was the best? It was only a few hours till the sunset and what should she do? Was there no one to help her?

Suddenly from the roadway below she heard a neigh. It was Fleetfoot, and he was tired of being tied to a sapling. Now Litahni loved Fleetfoot, her horse, for they had grown up together, so she hurried to the tree where she had left him, untied his bridle, jumped on his back and whispered,

“Fly, Fleetfoot! Fly into the sunset. Go fast and go far and let me think as we fly.”

Then the horse sped away toward the north. As they passed the little lake in the valley it whispered, “Life is not always calm. There must be tempests. But you can be calm in your inner life and you can be beautiful through it all.”

Up the hill she went, and as the wind blew over her face it seemed to say, “Why be bent? Why not bend?” At the top, looking far across a distant plain, her mother’s voice seemed to whisper, “Look far ahead, little girl. Look far ahead. What seems wonderful may prove to be only a shadow.”

On they flew. The girl’s face was flushed and thoughtful. 27 Soon she must turn if she would be at the meeting place. Where was Fleetfoot taking her? Perhaps he knew best what she should do.

Suddenly at a bend in the road Fleetfoot gave a great leap, startling the girl and almost making her lose her balance. Across the path, a giant tree had been felled by the lightning and there it lay, prone and helpless.

Then she shuddered. “Fear that which comes quickly and silently and which strikes at the heart.” Only a week before she had not known the white man—even now her father did not know that she knew him. Ought she to be afraid? If she met him, it must be silently, in the cover of the dark.