Chapter 23
Once Sam had finished with his dressing instruction, he returned to the main floor of the trading post. The proprietor greeted him. They went over the transaction for the skins and deducted the price of the supplies Sam had purchased. His final tally was nearly five hundred dollars. He had no way to gauge what this meant. Russell whistled through his teeth, however, and called him “one rich son of a gun.”
“Well, Mr. Hawkins,” Dexter said, “if we get rid of that hair of yours, we’ve got us one right proper white man.”
The two or three men still in the building all laughed. Sam managed a small laugh as well, but the thought of cutting his hair caused him much anguish. To a brave, long hair was a sign of strength and virility. Yet he knew if he were to gain acceptance in the white man’s world, he had to break his ties with his past.
“Anyone here want to do that for me?” he asked with determination.
“Tanner kin,” Russell piped up.