He will
hear sounds that are new, but he will learn them, and forget the voice
of his mother. It is the will of the Wahcondah, and a Sioux girl
should not complain. Speak to him softly, for his ears are very
little; when he is big, your words may be louder. Let him not be a
girl, for very sad is the life of a woman. Teach him to keep his eyes
on the men. Show him how to strike them that do him wrong, and let him
never forget to return blow for blow. When he goes to hunt, the flower
of the Pale-faces," she concluded, using in bitterness the metaphor
which had been supplied by the imagination of her truant husband,
"will whisper softly in his ears that the skin of his mother was red,
and that she was once the Fawn of the Dahcotahs."
Tachechana pressed a kiss on the lips of her son, and withdrew to the
farther side of the lodge. Here she drew her light calico robe over
her head, and took her seat, in token of humility, on the naked earth.
All efforts, to attract her attention, were fruitless. She neither
heard remonstrances, nor felt the touch.
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