he little bright face. "Metalka didn't
stay long after she came back. She didn't stay till Christmas; she went
'way--to--to heaven."

"Oh!"

"If Metalka had stayed, I might have gone to school this year."

"I thought you _had_ been to school, Lula."

"Oh, no! only to little school out here summers,--little school some
ladies made; and Metalka tole me--taught me--showed me ev'ry day after
she came back--ev'ry day, till--til she--went 'way. I can read and
write and talk, talk, talk, all day in English,"--smiling roguishly,
then more seriously and anxiously. "Is it pretty fair English,--white
English,--Major Molly?"

"'White English'!" laughed back Major Molly. "You are such fun, Lula.
Yes, it's pretty fair--white English."

Lula dimpled with pleasure, then sighed as she said, "If I could go 'way
off East to Metalka's school, two, three, four, five year, as Metalka
did, then I could talk splen'id English, and I could make heap--no, all
sort things, and help keep house nice, and cook like Metalka."

"But why don't you go, Lula?"

"Why don't I? Listen!" and Wallula bent forward eagerly. "I don't go
because my father won't have me go. Metalka went. When she first came
back, she was so happy, so strong. She was going to have everything
white way, civ--I can't say it, Maje Molly."

"Do you mean civilized?"

"Yes, yes; civ'lized--white way. And she worked, she talked, she tried,
and nobody'd pay much 'tention but my father. The girls, some o' them,
wanted to be like her; but the fathers and mothers would n' help, and
some, good many, were set hard 'gainst it; and then there was no money
to buy white people's clothes, they said. It took all the money was
earned to pay big 'counts up at agency store, where Indians bought
things,--things to eat, you know; so what's the use, they said, to try
to live white ways when everything was 'gainst them, and they stopped
trying; and Metalka was so dis'pointed, for she was going do so
much,--going help civ-civ'lize. She was so dis'pointed, she by-'n'-by
got sick--homesick, and just after the first snow came, she--she went
'way to heaven. And that's why my father won't have me go to the school.
He say it killed Metalka. He say if she'd stayed home, she'd been happy
Indian and lived long time. He say Indian got hurt; spoiled going off
into white man's country."

"How came he to let your sister go, Lula?"

"Metalka wanted to go so bad. She'd heard so much 'bout the 'way-off
school