"I speak with the tongue of the Professor," answered the lad, shyly, "though I know not if that is what thee means."
"Of course it is, if what you have just said is a sample. At any rate, it is good enough English for you to tell me what place this is, and who you are. I mean, what is your name? Mine is Todd Chalmers. Is there anything to eat that you could let me have, for I'm as hungry as a bear. I suppose you know what that is?"
"Oh, yes!" answered the other, brightly. "Bears are the big rabbits, bigger even than goats or deer, that ate up the children who mocked at Elisha. And here is piki for thee to eat. Also, thee is in the Valley of Peace, and thy servant is named Nanahe, though he is also sometimes called Ishmael, the son of Hagar, who fled into the wilderness."
"Are your parents Quakers?" asked Todd, greatly puzzled by the other's form of speech.
"My father was a Navajo, and my mother was of the Hopi people," answered the other, proudly.
"Oh, I see!" responded Todd, vaguely, though still wondering what sort of a lad this might be, who was so evidently an Indian, and yet spoke English without an accent, though in the manner affected by the Society of Friends. "But I say, old man, you won't mind if I call you 'Nana,' will you? Nanahe is too long for common use, and 'Nan' would sound too much like a girl's name, you know."
"Thee may call me what thee pleases, and I will answer. But has thee really seen girls and known them?" asked the other, eagerly.
"Well, I should rather say I had," laughed Todd. "Why, haven't you?"
"No, but I have wanted to so much. Tell me of them, and what they look like. Do they resemble mother?"
"Not having seen the lady, I can't say; but if she is the Professor's wife, I should think probably not. Girls, you know, are very young, and they look like—why, like nothing in the world but girls. As for describing them, you just can't, because no two of them are the same, and because there is nothing else that I know of to compare them with. But, Nana, how about that breakfast you mentioned some time since? Aren't you afraid we are letting it get cold?"