gratifying to hear from Shotaye's
own lips how good her son was.

"Sanaya," she asked after a while, timidly, "tell me for what you came."

"No," the other curtly answered.

Say started. "Be not angry with me," she pleaded. "I do not mean
anything wrong."

"And yet you slander your best child."

Say Koitza began to sob.

Shotaye continued, angrily,--

"You may well weep! Whoever speaks ill of his own blood, as you do,
ought to be sad and shed tears forever. Listen to me, koitza. Okoya is
good; he will not betray anybody, and least of all his mother. And hear
my words,--Mitsha also is good; as good as her father is bad, as wise as
her mother is foolish. Even if Okoya had found the feathers, and had
told makatza of it, she would keep it to herself, and the secret would
lie buried within her heart as deep as if it rested beneath the
nethermost rock on which the Tetilla stands. And in the end let me tell
you,"--she raised her head defiantly and her eyes flashed,--"if Okoya
likes the girl and she wants him, they are sure to come together. You
cannot prevent it; neither can Tyope, the tapop, the Hotshanyi,--not
even the whole tribe! Those on high hold the paths of our lives; they
alone can do and undo, make and unmake."

Say wept no more. She was convinced, and lifted her eyes again.

"Mother,"--it was Shyuote's voice which called into the outer room from
the court-yard,--"mother, come out and look at the fine rainbow." With
this he dashed into the inner door and stood there, the very incarnation
of dirt. He had been playing at Delight Makers in the mud-puddles
outside with some of his comrades, and was covered with splashes of mud
from head to foot. Say bounded from her seat and pushed back the forward
youngster.

"Who is with you, sanaya?" he inquired, while retreating.

"Nobody, you water-mole! I want to be alone. I have no time to look at
your rainbow. Get away!" and she hustled him outside and quickly
returned to the kitchen.

But Shyuote, not satisfied with his mother's statement, rushed to the
port-hole to see for himself. This Shotaye had expected; and as soon as
his dirty face darkened the opening, it received a splash of muddy
rain-water that caused the boy to desist from further prying.

After Say had resumed her seat by the hearth, Shotaye bent toward her
and whispered,--

"Mark me, the Shiuana are with us; the rainbow stands in the skies.
Those Above know that what I speak to you is the truth."