The Sun Maid: A Story of Fort Dearborn

Abel and Gaspar came in, and Kitty placed a plate of steaming cakes before them. Mercy hurried to the big churn outside the door and began to work the dasher up and down as if she hadn’t an ounce of butter in her dairy and must needs prepare this lot for the festival. As she churned she kept up a running fire of directions to the household within, finally suggesting, in a burst of liberality due to the occasion:

“You can fry what flapjacks you want for yourself, Wahneeny. An’ I don’t know as I care if you have a little syrup on ’em to-day – just for once, so to speak.”

However, Wahneenah disdained even the cakes, and the syrup-jug was deposited in its place with undiminished contents.

“Be you all through, then? Well, Kit, fly ’round. Clear the table like lightning, an’ fetch that butter bowl out the spring, an’ see if the salt’s all poun’ an’ sifted; an’ open the draw’s an’ lay out my clothes, an’ – Dear me! Does seem ’s if I should lose my senses with so much to do an’ no decent help, only – ”

“Hold on, Mercy! What’s the use of rushin’ through life ’s if you was tryin’ to break your neck?”

“Rushin’! With all that’s comin’ here to-day!”

“Well, let ’em come. We’ll be glad to see ’em. Nobody gladder ’n you yourself. But you fair take my breath away with your everlastin’ hurry-skurry, clitter-clatter. Don’t give a man a chance to even kiss his little girl good-mornin’. Do you know that, Sunny Maid? Hain’t said a word to your old Daddy yet!”

The child ran to him and fondly flung her arms as far as they would go around the settler’s broad shoulders. It was evident that there was love and sympathy between these two, though they were to be allowed short space “for foolin’” that day, and Mercy’s call again interrupted them:

“Come and take this butter down to the brook, Kit, an’ wash it all clean, an’ salt it just right – here ’tis measured off – an’ make haste. I do believe you’d ruther stand there lovin’ your old Abel – homely creatur’! – than helpin’ me. Yet, when I was a little girl your age, I could work the butter over fit to beat the queen. Upon my word, I do declare I see a wagon movin’ ’crost the prairie this very minute! Oh! what shall I do if I ain’t ready when they get here!”

Catching at last something of the pleasurable excitement about her, Kitty lifted the heavy butter-tray and started for the stream. The butter was just fine and firm enough to tempt her fingers into a bit of modelling, such as she had picked up for herself; and very speedily she had arranged a row of miniature fruits and acorns, and was just attempting to copy a flower which grew by the bank when Wahneenah’s voice, close at hand, warned her:

“Come, Girl-Child. The white mistress is in haste this morning. It is better to carry back the butter in a lump than to make even such pretty things and risk a scolding.”

“But father Abel would like them for his company. He is very fond of my fancy ‘pats’.”

“But not to-day. Besides, if there is time for idleness, I want you to pass it here with me, in my own wigwam.”

The Sun Maid looked up. “Shall you not be at the feasting, dear Other Mother? You have many friends among those who are coming.”

“Friendship is proved by too sharp a test sometimes. The way of the world is to follow the crowd. If a person falls into disfavor with one, all the rest begin to pick flaws. More than that: the temptation of money ruins even noble natures.”

“Why, Wahneenah! You sound as if you were talking riddles. Who is tempted by money? and which way does the ‘crowd’ you mean go? I don’t understand you at all.”

“May the Great Spirit be praised that it is so. May He long preserve to you your innocent and loyal heart.”

With these words, the Indian woman stooped and laid her hand upon the child’s head; then slowly entered her lodge and let its curtains fall behind her. There was an unusual sternness about her demeanor which impressed Kitty greatly; so that it was with a very sober face that she herself gathered up her burdens and returned to the cabin.

Yet on the short way thither she met Gaspar, who beckoned to her from behind the shelter of a haystack, motioning silence.

“But you mustn’t keep me, Gaspar boy. Mother Mercy is terribly hurried this morning, and now, for some reason, Other Mother has stopped helping and has gone home to the tepee. If I don’t work, it will about crush her down, Mercy says.”

“Hang Mercy! There. I don’t mean that. I wish you wouldn’t always look so scared when I get mad. I am mad to-day, Kit. Mad clear through. I’ve got to be around amongst folks, too, for a while; but the first minute you get, you come to that pile of logs near Wahneenah’s place, and I’ll have something to tell you.”

“No you won’t! No you won’t! I know it already. I heard father Abel talking. There is to be a horse race, after the harvesting and the supper are over. There is a new man, or family, moved into the neighborhood and he is a horse trader. I heard all about it, sir!”

“You heard that? Did you hear anything else? About Wahneenah and money?”

“Only what she told me herself”; repeating the Indian woman’s words.

“Then she knows, poor thing!” cried Gaspar, indignantly.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HARVESTING

Kitty had no time to ask further explanation. Already there was an ox team driving up to the cabin and, scanning the prairies, she saw others on the way, so merely stopped to cry, eagerly:

“They’ve come! The folks have come!” before she hastened in with the butter and to see if she could in any way help Mercy dress for the great occasion.

She was just in time, for the plump housewife was vainly struggling to fasten the buttons of a new lilac calico gown which she had made:

“A teeny tiny mite too tight. I didn’t know I was gettin’ so fat, I really didn’t.”

“Oh! it’s all right, dear Mother Mercy. It looked just lovely that day you tried it on. I’ll help you. You’re all trembling and warm. That’s the reason it bothers.”

She was so deft and earnest in her efforts that Mercy submitted without protest, and in this manner succeeded in “making herself fit to be seen by folks” about the moment that they arrived to observe. Then everything else was forgotten, amid the greetings and gayety that followed. For out of what purported to be a task the whole community was making a frolic.

While the men repaired to the golden fields to reap the grain the women hurried to the smooth grassy place where the harvest-dinner was to be enjoyed out-of-doors.

Most of the vehicles – which brought whole families, down to the babe in long clothes – were drawn by oxen, though some of the pioneers owned fine horses and had driven these, groomed with extraordinary care and destined, later on, to be entered in the races which should conclude the business and fun of the day.

Both horses and oxen were, for the present, led out to graze upon a fine pasture and were supposed to be under the care, while there, of the young people. These were, however, more deeply engaged in playing games than in watching, and for once their stern parents ignored the carelessness.

“Oh, such bright faces!” cried the Sun Maid to Mercy. “And yours is the happiest of all, even though you did have such a terrible time to get ready. See, they are fixing the tables out of the wagon boards, and every woman has brought her own dishes. They’re making fires, too, some of the bigger boys. What for, Mother Mercy?”

“Oh! don’t bother me now. It’s to boil the coffee on, and to bake the jonny-cakes. ‘Journey-cakes,’ they used to call them. Mis’ Waldron, she’s mixin’ some this minute. Step acrost to her table an’ watch. A girl a’most ten years old ought to learn all kinds of housekeepin’.”

Kitty was nothing loath. It was, indeed, a treat to see with what skill the comely settler of the wilderness mixed and tossed and patted her jonny-cake, famous all through that countryside for lightness and delicacy; and as she finished each batch of dough, and slapped it down upon the board where it was to cook, she would hand it over to Kitty’s charge, with the injunction:

“Carry that to one of the fires, an’ stand it up slantin’, so ’s to give it a good chance to bake even. Watch ’em all, too; an’ as soon as they are a nice brown on one side, either call me to turn ’em to the other, or else do it yourself. As Mercy Smith says, a girl can’t begin too early to housekeep.”

“But this is out-door keep, isn’t it?” laughed the Sun Maid, as, with a board upon each arm, she bounded away to place the cakes as she had been directed.

In ordinary, Mercy Smith was not a lavish woman; but on such a day as this she threw thrift to the wind and, brought out the best she could procure for the refreshment of her guests; and everybody knows how much better food tastes when eaten out-of-doors than in regular fashion beside a table. The dinner was a huge success; and even Gaspar, whom Kitty’s loving watchful eyes had noticed was more than usually serious that day, so far relaxed his indignation as to partake of the feast with the other visiting lads.

But, when it was over and the women were gathering up the dishes, preparatory to cleansing them for their homeward journey, the child came to where Mercy stood among a group of women, and asked:

“Shall I wash the dishes, Mother Mercy?”

“No, sissy, you needn’t. We grown folks’ll fix that. If you want something to do, an’ are tired of out-doors, you can set right down yonder an’ rock Mis’ Waldron’s baby to sleep. By and by, Abel’s got a job for you will suit you to a T!”

Kitty was by no means tired of out-doors, but a baby to attend was even a greater rarity than a holiday; so she sat down beside the cradle, which its mother had brought in her great wagon, and gently swayed the little occupant into a quiet slumber. Then she began to listen to the voices about her, and presently caught a sentence which puzzled her.

“Fifty dollars is a pile of money. It’s more ’n ary Indian ever was worth. Let alone a sulky squaw.”

“Yes it is. An’ I need it. I need it dreadful,” assented Mercy, forgetful of the Sun Maid’s presence in the room.

“Well, I, for one, should be afraid of her,” observed another visitor, clattering the knives she was wiping. “I wouldn’t have a squaw livin’ so near my door, an’ that’s a fact.”

Kitty now understood that these people were speaking of Wahneenah, and listened intently.