CHAPTER XXI.
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.
"Oh, Kit; I can't bear to leave you behind! It breaks my old heart allto flinders!" lamented Abel, laboriously climbing into the great wagonwhich Jim and Pete were now to draw back to their old home and whereinwere already seated Mercy, with Kitty's children. "If it wasn't forthese babies of yourn, I'd never stir stick nor stump out thisafflicted town."
"Well, dear Abel, the babies _are_, and must be cared for. I know thatyou and Mother Mercy will spoil them with kindness; but I hope we'llsoon be all together again. Good-by, good-by."
The Sun Maid's voice did not tremble nor the light in her brave facegrow dim, though her heart was nearer breaking than Abel's; in thatshe realized far more keenly than he the peril in which she wasvoluntarily placing herself.
"Well, Kitty, lamb, do take care. Take the herb tea constant and keepyour feet dry."
"That will be easy to do, if this heat remains," answered the otherquietly, looking about her as she spoke upon the sun-parched groundand the hot, brazen sky. "And you must not worry, any of you. Gasparsays the tepees are as comfortable as the best log cabins, though sohastily put up. You will have plenty of air and the delicious shade ofthe trees; the blessed spring water, too; and if you don't keep welland be as happy as kittens, I--I'll be ashamed of you. I declare,Mercy dear, your face is all a-beam with the thought of the oldclearing, and the bleaching ground, and all. So you needn't try tolook grave, for, as soon as we can, Wahneenah and I will follow."
Then she turned to speak to Gaspar, who sat on Tempest close at hand,his handsome face pale with anxiety and divided interests, but sternand resolute to do his duty as his young wife had shown it to him. Andwhat these two had to say to one another is not for others to hear;for it was a parting unto death, it might be, and the hearts of thetwain were as one flesh.
Also, if Mercy's face was alight with the glow of her home returning,it was moved by the sight of the two women--Wahneenah and herdaughter--who were taking their lives in their hands for the serviceof their fellow-men.
Never had the Indian woman's comeliness shown to such advantage; andher bearing was of one who neither belittled nor overrated the dignityof the self-sacrifice she was making. She wore a white cotton gown,which draped rather than fitted her tall figure, and about her darkhead was bound a white kerchief that seemed a crown. With an impulseforeign to her, Mercy held out her hand; because in ordinary she"hated an Indian on sight."
"Well, Wahneeny, I'd like to shake hands for good-by. There hain'tnever been no love lost 'twixt you an' me, but I 'low I might havebeen more juster than I was. I think you're--you're as good as arywhite women I ever see, savin' our Kit, of course; an'--an'--I--I wishyou well."
There was a moment's hesitation on Wahneenah's part; then her slimbrown hand was extended and closed upon Mercy's fat palm with afriendly pressure.
"In the light of the Unknown Beyond, the little hates and loves ofearth must disappear. You have judged according to the wisdom that wasin you, and if I bore you a grudge, it is forgotten. Farewell."
Then the foster-mother slipped her arm about the waist of her belovedSun Maid and supported her firmly as the oxen moved slowly forward,the heavy wheels creaking and the three children shouting and clappingtheir hands in innocent glee, quite unconscious of the tragedy of theparting they had witnessed.
Abel gee-ed and haw-ed indiscriminately and confusingly, thenbelabored his patient beasts because they did not understandconflicting orders. Mercy sat twisted around upon the buffalo-coveredseat, her arms holding each a child as in a vise and her neck indanger of dislocation, as long as her swimming eyes could catch oneglimpse of the two white-robed women left on the dusty road.
"They look as pure as some them Sisters of Charity I've seen in Bostoncity. And they won't spare themselves no more, neither. Poor Gasparboy! How'll he ever stand it without his Kit, and if--ah, if--sheshould catch--Oh, my soul! oh--my--soul! I wonder if he's takin' itterrible hard!"
But though she brought her body back to a normal poise, her morbidcuriosity was doomed to disappointment, for Tempest had already bornehis master out of sight at a mad pace across the prairie.
The enemy which had come with the infantry over the great water wasthe most terrible known,--a disease so dread and devastating that menturned pale at the mere mention of its name--the Asiatic cholera.
When it appeared, the garrison was crowded with the settlers who hadfled before the anticipated attacks of the Indians and, as has beensaid, every roof in the community sheltered all it could cover. Butwhen the soldiers began to die by dozens and scores the refugees wereterrified. Death by the hand of the red man was possible, evenprobable; but death of the pestilence was certain.
The town was now emptied far more rapidly than it had filled; andearly in this new disaster Gaspar had hastened to the old clearing ofthe Smiths and had made Osceolo, aided by a few more frightened,willing men, toil with himself to erect wigwams enough to accommodatemany persons. He had then returned for his household and had been metby his wife's first resistance to his will.
"No, Gaspar, I cannot go. I have no fear. I am perfectly 'sound.'Probably no healthier woman ever lived than I am. I have learned muchof nursing from Wahneenah, and my place, my duty, is here. I cannotgo."
"Kit! my Kitty! Are you beside yourself? Where is your duty, if not tome and to our children?"
"Here, my husband, right here; in our beloved town, among the lonelystrangers who have come to save it from destruction and have laidtheir lives at our feet."
"That is sheer nonsense. Your life is at stake."
"Is my life more precious than theirs?"
"Yes. Infinitely so. It is mine."
"It is God's--and humanity's--first, Gaspar."
"Your children, then; if you scorn my wishes."
"Don't make it hard for me, beloved; harder than God Himself has madeit. Do you take Mother Mercy and Abel and go to the place you haveprepared. The children will be as safe with her as with me; safer, forshe will watch them constantly, while I believe in leaving them togrow by themselves. Between them and us you may come and go--up to acertain point; but not to the peril of your taking the disease. TheIndians are no less on the war-path because the cholera has come._Your_ duty is afield, guarding, watching, preventing all the evilthat a wise man can. Mine is here, using the skill I have learned fromWahneenah and faithfully at her side."
"Wahneenah? Does she wish to stay too; to nurse the pale-faces, themen who have come here to fight her own race?"
"Yes, Gaspar, she is just so noble. Can I do less? I, with myeducation, which the dear Doctor has given me, and my youth, myperfect health, my entire fearlessness. You forget, sweetheart; I amthe Unafraid. Never more unafraid than now, never more sure that wewill come out of this trouble as we have come out of every other. Why,dear, don't you remember old Katasha and her prophecy? I am to begreat and rich and beneficent. I am to be the helper of many people.Well, then, since I am not great, and rich only through you, let mebegin at the last end of the prophecy, and be beneficent. Wait; evennow there is somebody coming toward us asking me for help."
"Kit, I can't have it. I won't. You are my wife. You shall obey me.You shall stop talking nonsense. You may as well understand. Picktogether what duds you need and let's get off as soon as possible.Every hour here is fresh danger. Come. Please hurry."
But she did not hurry, not in the least. Indeed, had she followed herheart wholly, she would never have hastened one degree toward the endshe had elected. But she followed it only in part; so she stolequietly up to where the man fumed and flustered and clasped her armsabout his neck and laid her beautiful face against his own.
"Love: this is not our first separation, nor our longest. Many a monthhave you been away from me, up there in the north, getting money andmore money, till I hated its very name,--only that I knew we could useit for others. In that, and in most things, I will obey you as I have.In this I must obey the voice of God. Life is better than money, andto sa
ve life or to comfort death is the price of this, our lastseparation."
After that he said no more; but recognizing the nobility of hereffort, even though he still felt it mistaken, and with a credulousremembrance of Katasha's saying, he made her preparations and his ownwithout delay and parted from her as has been told.
"Well, my dear Other Mother, there is one thing to comfort! Hard as itwas to see them all go, we shall have no time to brood. And we shallbe together. Let us get on now to our work. There were five new casesthis morning; and time flies! Oh, if I were wiser and knew better whatto do for such a sickness! The best we can--that's all."
"What the Great Spirit puts into our hands, that we can always lift,"replied Wahneenah, and, with her arm still about her darling's waist,they walked together Fortward. It may be that in the Indian's jealous,if devoted, heart there was just a tinge of thankfulness for even anevil so dire, since it gave her back her "White Papoose" quite toherself again.
"Well, I can watch her all I choose, and no burden shall fall to hershare that I can spare her. The easy part--the watching and thesoothing and the Bible reading--that shall be hers. Mine will be thecoarsest tasks," she thought, and--as Gaspar had done--reckonedwithout her host.
"It is turn and turn about, Other Mother, or I will drive you out ofthe place," Kitty declared; and after a few useless struggles, whichmerely wasted the time that should have been given their patients, itwas so settled; and so continued during the dreadful weeks thatfollowed.
Until just before midsummer the nurses were almost wholly at theFort, where it seemed to Kitty that a "fresh case" and a "burial"alternated with the regularity of a pendulum; and then a little reliefwas gained by taking their sick across to Agency House and its ampleraccommodations. But even these were meagre compared to the needs; andmore and more as the days went by did the Sun Maid long for greaterwisdom.
"That is one of the things Gaspar and I must do. We must have aregular hospital, such as are in Eastern cities; and there must be menand women taught to understand all sorts of diseases and how to carefor them. I know so little--so little."
But experience taught more than schools could have done; and many apoor fellow who had come from a far-away home sank to his last restwith greater confidence because of the ministrations of these twodevoted women. And at last, very suddenly, there appeared one amongthem whom both Wahneenah and her daughter recognized with a sinkingheart.
"Doctor! Oh, Doctor Littlejohn! I thought you were safe at the'Refuge' with Mercy and Abel. How came you here? and why? You must goaway at once. You must, indeed. Where is the horse you rode?"
"I rode no horse, my dear. If I had asked for one, I should have beenprevented,--even forcibly, I fear. So I walked."
"Walked? In this heat, all that distance? Will you tell me why?"
But already, before it was spoken, the Sun Maid guessed the answer.
"Because, at length, through all the shifting talk about me, itpenetrated to my study-dulled brain that there was a need more urgentthan that the Indian dialects should be preserved; that I, a ministerof the gospel, was letting a woman take the duty, the privilege, thatwas mine. I have come, daughter of my old age, to encourage thesufferers you relieve and bury the dead you cannot save."
"But--for _you_, in your feebleness----"
He held up his thin white hand that trembled as an aspen leaf.
"It is enough, my dear. Consider all is said. I heard a fresh groanjust then. Somebody needs you--or me."
Wahneenah now had two to watch, and she did it jealously, at the costof the slight rest she had heretofore allowed herself. The result ofoverstrain, in the midst of such infection, was inevitable. Oneevening she crept languidly toward the empty house which had been herdarling's home and behind which still stood her own deserted lodge.She was a little wearier than usual, she thought, but that was all. Tolie down on her bed of boughs and draw her own old blanket over herwould make her sleep. She longed to sleep--just for a minute; to shutout from her eyes and her thoughts the scenes through which she hadgone. How long ago was it since the wagon and the fair-haired babieswent away?
She was a little confused. She was falling asleep, though, despite theagony that tortured her. _Her?_ She had always hated pain and despisedit. It couldn't be Wahneenah, the Happy, crouching thus, in a crampedand becrippled attitude. It was some other woman,--some woman she hadused to know.
Why, there was her warrior: her own! And the son she had lost! Andnow--what was this in the parting of the tent curtains? The moonlightmade mortal?
No. Not a moon-born but a sun-born maiden she, who stooped till herwhite garments swept the earth and her beautiful, loving face wasclose, close. Even the glazing eyes could see how wondrously fair itwas in the sight of men and spirits. Even the dulled ears could catchthat agonized cry:
"Wahneenah! Wahneenah! My Mother! Bravest and noblest! and yet--asavage!"
"Who called her so knew not of what he spake. From one God we all cameand unto Him we must return. Blessed be His Name!" answered theclergyman who had followed.
Then the frail man, who had so little strength for himself, was givenpower to lift the broken-hearted Maid and carry her away into a placeof safety.
The Sun Maid: A Story of Fort Dearborn Page 23
