“Wait, Little Rock!” his friend warned gently. “Do not go to your father now. The Medicine Man is with him.”
“What is the trouble with my father?”
“Do not worry, Little Rock. Great Rock is a great and strong Chief. He will be all right.”
“As my friend, Little Red Cloud, I ask you once again. What is the matter with my father? It cannot be so simple, when half the tribe gathers outside the entrance to my father’s wigwam. They usually come to talk or seek advice, but now they are silent and their faces are sad. Tell me, Little Red Cloud, what is wrong?”
Little Rock could not wait for an answer. He jumped from his pony and ran swiftly toward his father’s wigwam. He was met at the entrance by his mother.
“Wait, Little Rock! Do not come in yet. Tall Spear is making medicine for your father. He is very ill.”
“I must go to him. He may need me.”
Just then the Medicine Man joined Little Rock’s mother.
“Your father is asking for you, Little Rock,” the old man said. “You can see him now.”
Little Rock stepped inside the wigwam and found his father lying on the great buffalo robe, his head propped up. Great Rock’s face looked drawn and tired and he breathed with great difficulty. As Little Rock knelt beside his father, the sick man’s eyes opened wide.