Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/269

 RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 261 himself, but to obey my wife was a sore trial to his pride, which was ever on the point of revolt against what some white masculines call petticoat government. Her requests he exe- cuted grudgingly and once he positively refused and stood in battle array. When informed of it, I asked him to give a reason for such treatment of the person who was performing the duties of mother for him. "Does she not cook your victuals, wash your clothes, give you a soft, warm bed, teach you to read and treat you as her own boy? And is this the return you make for all her good- ness 1 Can't you see that your refusal to do what she requests is the act of a cowardly cur that should be kicked out of decent society ? Now, Charlie, if you are intending to be a man and hold your head up among men, never let that occur again. ' ' And he didn't, though he had lived too long among those who thought it humiliating for braves to obey a squaw. His education did not begin soon enough. We had a flock of sheep and it was Charlie's duty to bring them to the corral every evening before dark to secure them from wolves, a task which he performed punctually with one exception. Upon coming home one night at ten o'clock, I found him sitting before the fireplace in a moody state of mind, and upon inquiring the cause learned that the sheep were not penned as usual; that Charlie had been on a visit that day to one of the neighbors, did not get home until after dark, and that he had had an unsuccessful search for them. "Well," said I, "you do not propose to leave them out over night for the wolves to kill, do you 1 ' ' My wife interposed with the remark that Charlie was afraid, and being a little boy she could not ask him to go again. "Why, he has been big enough all along to drive sheep, and I guess he is big enough now. ' ' "Well, but he suffers from fear," my wife said, "and it is cruel to force him out at this time of night." "The dark," he muttered. "Nonsense, the dark never hurts anybody."
 * ' Charlie, what are you afraid of? "