Chapter Twenty
BUCKSKINS • WORDS OF ADVICE • FAREWELL
THE NEXT morning, their grandfather woke them and told them to dress. Lionel crawled from beneath the buffalo robe and stumbled to his clothes, which were stacked in a neat pile next to the fireplace. Folded on top, Lionel found the buckskin leggings. He looked over excitedly and saw Beatrice pulling on her new shirt.
Along with her long braids and hawk feathers, Beatrice looked like a page from the painted picture book of “savages” that the Brothers had showed Lionel once in the library at the boarding school. well, except for the fact the painted “savage” in the book wore a fierce scowl, not the ear-to-ear grin that was plastered across Beatrice’s beaming face.
Once dressed, they had berries and coffee for breakfast—Lionel showing better judgment this time as to the amount of berries he ate. Then their grandfather walked them through all that he had showed them, starting at the stream with the berries, then turning to the garden, the Great wood, and the smokehouse.
They returned to the lodge, and Grandpa brought his mule around and loaded up his gear. while he packed, Beatrice and Lionel sat with him; Beatrice doing her best to tie small cardinal and blue jay feathers into Lionel’s growing hair.
Then Grandpa cinched the last of his belongings. “Well, I best be goin’. The soldiers will be back by my place the day after next. I counted.”
He kneeled down and pulled Lionel and Beatrice close.
“They make their rounds about every ten days or so, and I’m sure they’ll be eager to come by my place and check for you. Soldiers are prone to stick to their habits, I’ve noticed.”
Grandpa looked sad as he hugged them. He stood and threw his leg over his old mule.
“You two take care of each other, you hear? I’ll be back as soon as I can, and we’ll figure out our next move.” Then he spun his mule around and vanished into the Great wood.
A dark sense of melancholy hung over Lionel and Beatrice that afternoon. They stayed busy, continuing their grandfather’s prescribed daily regimen of tending the garden and practicing with their bows and arrows, but it wasn’t the same.
As the days passed, their moods improved, and they soon found themselves laughing and taking turns telling each other of the travels of Napi the old Man and counting down the days until their grandfather’s return.