The people have had a heavy burden upon them during the hard times of these winter months when there is so little for them to do in the way of earning money. Of their little means they give freely and gladly. Many of them are paid for their work in provisions at the stores so that they do not receive much money. One poor woman said to me: "I can always give a little something because[pg 193] I get forty cents every week for my washing." She lives in a little log cabin, through the sides of which the wind often whistles, but every Sunday she gives something for the church of Christ.
A Poor Woman's Fine Feeling.--One day last year our laundress sent her oldest boy, a lad fourteen years of age, on an errand. He was gone an hour or more longer than she expected him to be. Upon his return she asked him what he had been doing all that time. He told her that an expressman had been run away with, and had been quite badly hurt. He had helped get the man into a store, had gone for a doctor, and had done all that he could for him. When he left him the man told him to go to his office the next day and he would give him something. The boy's mother at once said that he mustn't think of taking anything for what he had done for the man when he was in trouble.
Who can say that the colored people are incapable of fine feeling? This poor woman was certainly not so well provided with this world's goods that she had no use for money. On the contrary, she was a widow, with a family of five children that she had kept together and had sent to school at the cost of much sacrifice and years of hard work at the washtub.
The Indians.
REVIVAL--LIBERAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
MISS M. C. COLLINS, FORT YATES, N. DAK.
I am sure you will be glad to hear of the great, may I say "revival," which seems to be upon us. On March 1 at our regular communion we received into the church fifteen adults, and there were eight marriages and nine children baptized. Six of these people came from Flying-By region (Miss Lord's people). She is rejoicing. One, Swift Cloud, and his wife, are a middle-aged couple, who lived here when I first came to this village. They are a good addition to our force. Then Two-Runs and his wife are two good people, Miss Lord's near neighbors, and will be a great help to her. The others uniting came from my village, and we now have only two men and their wives in this village who are not in the church. Bird-Dog, another of Miss Lord's people, and his wife and sister have given me their names as candidates for membership at the next communion. The Y. M. C. A. down there are hauling logs to build a place to meet in. The little cabin we put up is already too small.
Our contributions for Native Missionary work, from October 1 to March 1, all told, on Standing Rock Agency, are $206.47.