human fleece upon that
small head. She is sacred."

"How? Is the White Pelican a man of dreams?"

The elder brave also used a tone of contempt, though not with marked
success. His thought reverted to the night before, when the chief had
stood beside the council fire holding the sleeping child in his arms.
Her wonderful yellow hair, fine as spun cobwebs and almost as light,
had blown over the breast of Black Partridge like a cloud, and it had
glistened and shimmered in the firelight as if possessed of restless
life. The little figure was clothed in white, as the Fort mothers had
fancied best suited their charge's fairness, even though the fabric
must of necessity be coarse; and this garment likewise caught the glow
of the dancing flames till it seemed luminous in itself.

As an idle rumor spreads and grows among better cultured people so
superstition held in power these watchful Indians. Said one:

"The father of his tribe has met a spirit on the prairie and brought
it to our village. Is the deed for good or evil?"

This was what the men in the semi-circle had come to find out. So
they relapsed again into silence, but kept a fixed gaze upon the
indifferent child before them. She continued her playing and feeding
as unconsciously as if she, the flowers, and the sunshine, were
quite alone. Some even fancied that they could hear the orchids
whispering in return; and it was due to that morning's incident that,
thereafter, few among the Pottawatomies would lightly bruise or break
a blossom which they then learned to believe was gifted with a sensate
life.

But presently a sibilant "Hst!" ran the length of the squatting line,
and warriors who feared not death for themselves felt their muscles
stiffen under a tension of dread as they saw the slow, sinuous
approach of a poisonous reptile to the child on the mat; and the
thought of each watcher was the same:

"Now, indeed, the test--spirit or mortal?"

The snake glided onward, its graceful body showing through the grass,
its head slightly upraised, and its intention unmistakable.

An Indian can be the most silent thing on earth, if he so wills, and
at once it was as if all that row of red men had become stone. Even
Wahneenah, in the wigwam behind, was startled by the stillness, and
cautiously tiptoed forward to learn its cause. Then her heart, like
theirs, hushed its beating and she rigidly awaited the outcome.

Only the child herself was undisturbed. She did not cea