|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 24
"But what do you think she said when I put that up to her--about it's
being a slow job?" and the miller chuckled. "Why, she told me that all
her folks had was time, and they'd got to spend it somehow. They'd
better be grinding corn by hand than making war on their neighbors or
the whites, like they used to. She ain't so slow."
Ruth quite agreed with this. The Osage maiden was more than ordinarily
intelligent, and she began to take a deep interest in the development
of the story that Ruth was making for screen use.
"Am I to be that girl?" she asked doubtfully. "How can I play that I am
in love when I have never seen a man I cared for--in that way?"
"Can't you imagine admiring a nice young man?" asked Ruth in return.
"Not a white man like this one in your story," Wonota said soberly. "It
should be that he did more for himself--that he was more of a--a brave.
We Indians do not expect our men to be saved from disgrace by women.
Squaws are not counted of great value among the possessions of a chief."
"So you could not really respect such a man as I describe here if he
allowed a girl to help him?" Ruth asked reflectively, for Wonota's
criticism was giving her some thought.
"He should not be such a man--to need the help of a squaw," declared the
Indian maid confidently. "But, of course, it does not matter if only
palefaces are to see the picture."
But Ruth could not get the thought out of her mind. It might be that the
Indian girl had suggested a real fault in the play she was making, and
she took Mr. Hammond into her confidence about it when she sent him the
first draft of the story. Her whole idea of the principal male character
in "Brighteyes" might need recasting, and she awaited the picture
producer's verdict with some misgiving.
While she waited a red-letter day occurred---so marked both for herself
and for Helen Cameron. The chums had hoped--oh, how fondly!--that they
would hear that Tom Cameron was on his way home. But gradually the fact
that demobilization would take a long time was becoming a fixed idea in
the girls' minds.
Letters came from Tom Cameron--one each for the two girls and one for
Mr. Cameron. Instead of being on his way home, Captain Cameron had been
sent even farther from the French port to which he had originally sailed
in the huge transport from New York.
* * * * *
"I am now settled on the Rhine--one of the 'watches,' I suppose, that
the Germans used to sing about, now stamped 'Made in America,' however,"
he wrote to Ruth. "We watch a bridge-head and see that the Germans don't
carry away anything that might be needed on this side of the most
over-rated river in the world. I have come to the conclusion, since
seeing a good bit of Europe, that most of the scenery is over-rated and
does not begin to compare with the natural beauties of America. So many
foreigners come to our shores and talk about the beauty-spots of their
own countries, and so few Americans have in the past seen much of their
own land, that we accept the opinions of homesick foreigners as to the
superiority of the beauties of their father-and-mother-lands. After this
war I guess there will be more fellows determined to give the States the
'once over.'"
* * * * *
Tom always wrote an Interesting letter; but aside from that, of course
Ruth was eager to hear from him. And now, as soon as she could, she sat
down and replied to his communication. She had, too, a particular topic
on which she wished to write her friend.
Now that embattled Germany would no longer hold its prisoners
_incommunicado_, Ruth hoped that news about the imprisoned performers of
the Wild West Show might percolate through the lines. Chief Totantora
had been able but once to get a message to his daughter.
This message had reached America long before the United States had got
into the war. Although the Osage chieftain was an American (who could
claim such proud estate if Totantora could not?), the show by which he
was employed had gone direct to Germany from England, and anything
English had, from the first, been taboo in Germany. Now, of course, the
Indian girl had no idea as to where her father was.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|