of
her own sex and age, she gains a secret strength, as she studies the art
of womanhood from nature herself.

Winona has the robust beauty of the wild lily of the prairie, pure and
strong in her deep colors of yellow and scarlet against the savage
plain and horizon, basking in the open sun like a child, yet soft and
woman-like, with drooping head when observed. Both girls are beautifully
robed in loose gowns of soft doeskin, girded about the waist with the
usual very wide leather belt.

"Come, let us practice our sacred dance," says one to the other. Each
crowns her glossy head with a wreath of wild flowers, and they dance
with slow steps around the white birch, singing meanwhile the sacred
songs.

Now upon the lake that stretches blue to the eastward there appears a
distant canoe, a mere speck, no bigger than a bird far off against the
shining sky.

"See the lifting of the paddles!" exclaims Winona.

"Like the leaping of a trout upon the water!" suggests Miniyata.

"I hope they will not discover us, yet I would like to know who they
are," remarks the other, innocently.

The birch canoe approaches swiftly, with two young men plying the light
cedar paddles.

The girls now settle down to their needlework, quite as if they had
never laughed or danced or woven garlands, bending over their embroidery
in perfect silence. Surely they would not wish to attract attention, for
the two sturdy young warriors have already landed.

They pick up the canoe and lay it well up on the bank, out of sight.
Then one procures a strong pole. They lift a buck deer from the
canoe--not a mark upon it, save for the bullet wound; the deer looks as
if it were sleeping! They tie the hind legs together and the fore legs
also and carry it between them on the pole.

Quickly and cleverly they do all this; and now they start forward and
come unexpectedly upon the maidens' retreat! They pause for an instant
in mute apology, but the girls smile their forgiveness, and the youths
hurry on toward the village.

Winona has now attended her first maidens' feast and is considered
eligible to marriage. She may receive young men, but not in public or in
a social way, for such was not the custom of the Sioux. When he speaks,
she need not answer him unless she chooses.

The Indian woman in her quiet way preserves the dignity of the home.
From our standpoint the white man is a law-breaker! The "Great Mystery,"
we say, does not adorn the woman above th