se the slow
lifting of the clay spoon to her lips, and between sips she still
prattled and gurgled in sheer content.

"Kitty is most fulled up, 'cause she did have so big a breakfast, she
did. Nice Other Mother did give it me. I wish my bunny rabbit had not
runned away. Then he could have some. Never mind. Here comes a
beau'ful cunning snake. I did see one two times to my Fort. Bad Jacky
soldier did kill him dead, and that made Kitty cry. Come, pretty
thing, do you want Kitty's breakfast? Then you may have it every bit."

So she tossed her hair from her eyes and sat with uplifted spoon while
the moccasin glided up to the mat and over it, till its mouth could
reach the shallow bowl in the child's lap.

"Oh! the funny way it eats. Poor thing! It hasn't any spoon. It might
have Kitty's, only----"

The bright eyes regarded the rudely shaped implement and the mouth it
was to feed; then the little one's ready laughter bubbled forth.

"Funny Kitty! How could it hold a spoon was bigger 'n itself--when its
hands have never grown? Other pretty one, that Jacky killed, that
didn't have its hands, either. Hush, snaky. Did I make you afraid, I
laugh so much? Now I will keep very, very still till you are through.
Then you may go back home to your childrens, and tell them all about
your nice breakfast. Where do you live? Is it in a Fort, as Kitty
does? Oh, I forgot! I did promise to keep still. Quite, quite still,
till you go way away."

So she did; while not only the red-skins, but all nature seemed to
pause and watch the strange spectacle; for the light breeze that had
come with the sunrise now died away, and every leaf stood still in the
great heat which descended upon the earth.

It seemed to Wahneenah, watching in a very motherly fear, and to the
squatting braves, in their increasing awe, as if hours passed while
the child and the reptile remained messmates. But at length the
dangerous serpent was satisfied and, turning slowly about, retreated
whence it came.

Then Mistress Kitty lifted her voice and called merrily:

"Come, Other Mother! Come and see. I did have a lovely, lovely creepy
one to eat with me. He did eat so funny Kitty had to laugh. Then I
remembered that my other peoples to my Fort tell all the children to
be good and I was good, wasn't I? Say, Other Mother, my posies want
some water."

"They shall have it, White Papoose, my Girl-Child-Who-Is-Safe. She
whom the Great Spirit has restored nothing can harm."