The Time Came When Dinner Could No Longer Be Put Off, So We Sat Down.
Our Menu In This Place
Is necessarily limited, but a friend at Fort
Dodge had added to our stores by sending us some fresh potatoes
And
some lettuce by the mail wagon just the day before, and both of these
Powder-Face seemed to enjoy. In fact, he ate of everything, but Wauk
was more particular - lettuce, potatoes, and ham she would not touch.
Their table manners were not of the very best form, as might be
expected, but they conducted themselves rather decently - far better
than I had feared they would. All the time I was wondering what that
squaw was thinking of things! Powder-Face was taken to Washington last
year with chiefs of other nations to see the "Great Father," so he
knew much of the white man's ways, but Wauk was a wild creature of the
plains.
We kept them bountifully supplied with everything on the table, so our
own portion of the dinner would remain unmolested, although neither
Faye nor I had much appetite just then. When Farrar came in to remove
the plates for dessert, and Powder-Face saw that the remaining food
was about to disappear, he pushed Farrar back and commenced to attend
to the table himself. He pulled one dish after another to him, and
scraped each one clean, spreading all the butter on the bread, and
piled up buffalo steak, ham, potatoes, peas - in fact, every crumb that
had been left - making one disgusting mess, and then tapping it with
his finger said, "Papoose! Papoose!" We had it all put in a paper and
other things added, which made Wauk almost bob off her chair in her
delight at having such a feast for her little chief. But the condition
of my tablecloth made me want to bob up and down for other feelings
than delight!
After dinner they all sat by the stove and smoked, and Powder-Face
told funny things about his trip East that we could not always
interpret, but which caused him and Wauk to laugh heartily. Wauk sat
very close to him, with elbows on her knees, looking as though she
would much prefer to be squatted down upon the floor.
The tepee odor became stifling, so in order to get as far from the
Indians as possible, I went across the room and sat upon a small trunk
by the window. I had not been there five minutes, however, before that
wily chief, who had apparently not noticed my existence, got up from
his chair, gathered his blanket around him, and with long strides came
straight to me. Then with a grip of steel on my shoulder, he jerked me
from the trunk and fairly slung me over against the wall, and turning
to Faye with his head thrown back he said, "Whisk! Whisk!" at the same
time pointing to the trunk.
The demand was imperious, and the unstudied poise of the powerfully
built Indian, so full of savage dignity, was magnificent.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 51 of 213
Words from 25963 to 26475
of 110651