Chapter 18

At midday, Dew Drop and Little Bear showed up. She had prepared a meal from the stores I sent her the previous afternoon. While my new helper and I labored moving dirt and rock, Dew Drop set about remaking my miserable hovel into a proper tipi. By the end of the day, I was satisfied with what had been accomplished.

Before nightfall, the woman and the younger boy set out for their own lodge, but Rock elected to remain behind, claiming he could get a little more sleep if he stayed the night. As we sat around the fire pit in the center of my now commodious tipi, Rock made himself comfortable.

“Aren’t you going to tell me grandfather tales?” A bit of insolence showed through the words.

“Those are best told in winter.”

“Then tell me some win-taytales. You lived with the one they called the Red Win-tay, didn’t you? They say he was zjee-zjee.”

I examined the youth obliquely. “Yes, he had yellow hair.”

“On all his dahn-chahn?”