Red Bird (Prairie Winds Book 2)
Page 26
Rachel Red Eagle King, the first girl, lived only three days.
LisBeth Red Eagle King accompanied her husband to China as a missionary.
And their parents lived and labored and loved in a tiny village on the Cheyenne River with few people knowing or caring about the battles waged and won and lost for the hearts of a few poverty-stricken Lakota Sioux.
When Carrie Brown King was laid to rest beside her beloved Soaring Eagle, only a few Lakota joined the grown children who traveled home to gather around their mother’s grave. Their wavering voices sang a hymn of praise, for that is what Mrs. King had ordered.
“Don’t you mourn for me,” she had said. “You sing praises. Soaring Eagle said he would wait for me just inside the gate. I’ll see Walter and Rachel. Don’t you mourn.” Carrie had looked up at her children and smiled, her blue eyes sparkling. Then she had looked past them—upward—and died.
The mourners finished their hymn and worked together to fill in the grave. As they finished, the prairie winds came up, tossing the ocean of grass that began at the edge of the tiny cemetery, rolling on over the hills southward. A shadow darted across the weedy ground and the King children shaded their eyes and looked up, watching the eagle soar into the distance.
Jesse murmured, “Ma and Pa would have loved that. They always loved to watch those birds ride the wind.”
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness . . .
2 Timothy 4:7–8
Reader’s Discussion Guide
See the “rest of the story” by visiting the Pinterest
page Stephanie created for Red Bird here:
https://www.pinterest.com/stephgwhitson/red-bird/
1.Publishers sometimes talks about the “take-away” value of a book. What do you think is the “take-away” value of Red Bird ? What will you remember most about it?
2.What events or beliefs enabled Soaring Eagle’s transformation? What were his deepest struggles? What struggles do you think would have continued throughout his life? What do you admire most about him?
3.Is there a Scripture passage in one chapter that proved unusually meaningful to you? How did that Scripture apply to the events in the chapter? Why do you think it resonated with you personally?
4.Who was your favorite minor character? What character quality did you like most about him/her?
5.Was Everett a good friend to Carrie? Why or why not?
6.What unique obstacles would Julia Woodward have encountered if she had married Soaring Eagle? Are they different from those Carrie Brown would face?
7.When Soaring Eagle returns to the mission school as Jeremiah King, he’s a different man than the one who left. Will those changes enhance his ministry or create obstacles?
8.When Carrie finally begins to consider God’s will for her life, it’s painful. Have you encountered a time in your life when you had to give up a dream because you felt God wanted you to? What did you learn that would have helped you be a good friend to Carrie during that painful time?
9.How does Soaring Eagle show his love for Carrie after the blizzard?
10.Do you think Carrie had to go through the trials she did in order to prepare her to be Soaring Eagle’s wife? Why or why not?
11.Were you satisfied by the way the book ended? Why or why not?
About Stephanie
A ward-winning novelist Stephanie Grace Whitson began playing with imaginary friends (i.e., writing fiction) in the 1990s when an abandoned pioneer cemetery near the Whitson’s country home provided not only a hands-on history lesson for her four home schooled children, but also a topic of personal study. She has continued to write full time since the release of her first novel in 1995. When not writing or researching, she enjoys reading, quilting, spoiling her grandchildren and/or Kona Kai (the golden retriever), and riding her motorcycle named Kitty. Learn more at www.stephaniewhitson.com .
More historical romance from Stephanie Grace Whitson
The Key on the Quilt
Book 1 in the Quilt Chronicles
A s the hidden meaning behind a Courthouse Steps quilt unravels, three women form an unlikely friendship that takes them to the end of themselves and ultimately on a journey that proves prison walls can neither frustrate God’s plans nor keep love out.
Jane is serving a ten-year sentence at the Nebraska State Penitentiary—and hiding a startling secret.
Mamie told God she’d go anywhere . . . but she never dreamed He’d send her to nurture women the world had forgotten.
Ellen was never going to leave Kentucky . . . but then marriage made her a Nebraska warden’s wife.