Page:B M Bower - Heritage of the Sioux.djvu/24

THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX of Old Chief Big Turkey, and therefore Annie's brother by adoption—even Luck maintained that Annie-Many-Ponies undoubtedly carried a knife concealed in her clothes and would use it if ever the need arose. Applehead was not afraid of Annie's knife. It was something else, something he could not put into words, that held him back from open upbraidings.

He gave Andy's wife, Rosemary, the mail and stopped to sympathize with her because Annie-Many-Ponies had gone away and left the hardest part of the ironing undone. Luck had told Annie to help Rosemary with the work; but Annie's help, when Luck was not around the place, was, Rosemary asserted, purely theoretical.

"And from all you read about Indians," Rosemary complained with a pretty wrinkling of her brows, "you'd think the women just live for the sake of working. I've lost all faith in history, Mr. Furrman. I don't believe squaws ever do anything if they can help it. Before she went off riding today, for instance, that girl spent a whole hour brushing her hair and braiding it. And I do believe she greases it to make it shine the way 12