Dick's Desertion by Marjorie Pickthall — Read

That long winter spent among the Indians was a bitterly hard one to / Dick, and taught him patience and humility in no very gentle fashion. / He was anxious to put his good resolves to the test of action; but it / would be some time before his strength became sufficient for the long / journey back to the Settlements. And accustomed as he was to the / possession of perfect health, he fretted under the knowledge, and / chafed against the sense of helplessness which was so new to him. "But / what's the use of fidgeting over it? " he told himself over and over / again. "What's the use of thinking of it even, when I 'm fit for / nothing but to sit at the entrance of the tepee when the sun's warm, or / to lie on the pile of skins when the weather 's bad, and eat between / times? Oh, but that old woman can cook things! " And indeed the old / squaw, who was a person of position and influence, took care that he / had plenty of food and warmth, and saw to it that no one molested him, / regarding even Peter with suspicion. But the rest of the tribe looked / upon him merely as an appanage of Peter Many-Names, and not a / particularly creditable one at that.

Peter was enjoying himself thoroughly. The lean and haughty young / braves, who looked down upon the white boy, were glad of his silent / company; and the elders considered him a promising youth. While poor / Dick lay weak and restive in the old squaw's wigwam, Peter was ruffling / about the camp with a dozen arrogant young rascals at his tail. He was / pre-eminently skilful as a hunter, and he added many ponies to the / wealth of his host -- ponies which were certainly never taken in trade / for other articles, excepting probably an occasional bullet, or no less / deadly arrows. In the genial warmth of admiration Peter expanded / visibly in more respects than one. While poor Dick chafed under the / knowledge that he was neither needed nor respected.