An Open Air Page For Big Girls and Boys

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 131, 24 August 1927, Page 6

An Open Air Page For Big Girls and Boys

AT

DAY-DAWN

• 'I’llIS morning, Flying Cloud, a voice came whispering down 1 the trail and I rose from my couch of skins with ears alert. ‘Come forth,’ it said, ‘and bring neither thy bow nor thy quiver. A bird in the forest has a message for thee and its sweet throat is full of song. The Lake of Many Waters is lapping peaceful shores and the word of a faithful one is pinned to the birch tree.’ ” “And you went forth, O Chief ?” “I went forth, O Flying Cloud, and found the word of the faithful one who turns to the Wigwam in times of noonday heat, to its lee when cold winds come.’ A fair thought. Fidelity must ever claim the deepest corner in my heart. . . . The morning was sweet with dew, every leaf glistened, and, from the choir of voices in the forest, I singled out the notes of one particular bird: ‘Who is coming? Who is coming? See! See!’ it trilled.” “And you turned to the trail, O Chief?” “I turned to the trail, good Flying Cloud, and there in my path stood Little Brown Mocassin, her eyes keen with the joy of the quest. Behind her came Little Forest Flower and Little Blue Bird. ‘A voice came down the trail in the first breaking of the dawn,’ I told them, and she who had led them was none other than Morning Messenger. Even at that moment she was waiting under the Totem Pole. Then came Silver Antler, a hunter by moonlight, who seeks his quarry when branching antlers are tipped with silver. With him was Glistening Spear, whose polished shaft is of lightning speed and lightning brilliancy. Together we moved to the Totem Pole and there in truth was Morning Messenger, whose voice had roused a Great Chief in the first sweet comings of the day-dawn.” “And you carved their names, O Chief?’’ “I carved their names, O Flying Cloud.” “Day by day our tribes increase.” “The Wigwam is built for that purpose, maid of the Great Out-Doors.” REDFEATHER.