Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/298

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water, earth, and air. They even wanted pay for the stones I brought down the mountain for my mill."

"Very likely. Dr. McLoughlin once told me of a similar case. He was ballasting the barque ' Columbia for a trip to the Islands. A chief stepped up and demanded pay for the stones they were lading. The tribe looked on. With quick wit the old doctor grabbed up a stone and chucked it into the chiefs mouth. * Pay! pay! ' he roared, ' here, eat this.' The chief backed out amid the jeers of his people. Dr. McLoughlin has established the precedent that what they cannot eat or wear he does not propose to pay for. Remember, Brother Spalding, we would have trials even in teaching white children; Indians are only children, but they desire civilization and we cannot let this noble disposition expend itself in fruitless effort." Thus comforting and encouraging one another the missionaries entered the house where Mrs. Whitman sat instructing a class of bright little Indian girls, and every one had a rag dolly.

"Ha! ha! "laughed the gentlemen, "ha! ha! "

"Well/' expostulated Mrs. Whitman, "I was tired of seeing them carry sticks around on their backs for babies. Would n't mother wonder what looking objects Narcissa could make?" holding one up with a laugh. " No matter how they look. So long as it is a piece of cloth rolled up, with eyes, nose, and mouth marked with a pen, it answers every purpose. They caress and carry them around at a great rate."

Siskadee, with her beads, at the lodge door, saw the missionaries walking across the plain, but she only thought of Elijah; thought of him when as a child he wagered gravel-stones that he could shoot the little gray hare; thought of that day when he played he w