Warrior Gap | Page 3

between the lines and
every which way, could easily divine that Pappoose didn't fancy Miss
Brockway at all. And then had come a wonderful day, a wonderful
thing, into the schoolgirl's life. No less than twelve pages did
sixteen-year-old Pappoose take to tell it, and when a girl finds time to
write a twelve-page letter from the Point she has more to tell than she
can possibly contain. Mr. Dean had actually invited her--her, Elinor
Merchant Folsom--Winona, as they called her when she was a toddler
among the tepees of the Sioux--Pappoose as the girls had named her at
school--"Nell," as Jessie called her--sweetest name of all despite the
ring of sadness that ever hangs about it--and Daddy had actually smiled
and approved her going to the midweek hop on a cadet captain's broad
chevroned arm, and she had worn her prettiest white gown, and the
girls had brought her roses, and Mr. Dean had called for her before all

the big girls, and she had gone off with him, radiant, and he had
actually made out her card for her, and taken three dances himself, and
had presented such pleasant fellows--first classmen and "yearlings."
There was Mr. Billings, the cadet adjutant, and Mr. Ray, who was a
cadet sergeant "out on furlough" and kept back, but such a beautiful
dancer, and there was the first captain, such a witty, brilliant fellow,
who only danced square dances, and several cadet corporals, all hop
managers, in their red sashes. Why, she was just the proudest girl in the
room! And when the drum beat and the hop broke up she couldn't
believe she'd been there an hour and three-quarters, and then Mr. Dean
escorted her back to the hotel, and Daddy had smiled and looked on
and told him he must come into the cavalry when he graduated next
June, and he'd show him the Sioux country and Pappoose would teach
him the Indian dances. It was all simply lovely. Of course she knew it
was all due to Jessie that her splendid big brother should give up a
whole evening from his lady friends. (Miss Brockway spoke so
patronizingly to her in the hall when the girls were all talking together
after the cadets had scurried away to answer tattoo roll-call.) Of course
she understood that if it hadn't been for Jessie none of the cadets would
have taken the slightest notice of her, a mere chit, with three years of
school still ahead of her. But all the same it was something to live over
and over again, and dream of over and over again, and the seashore
seemed very stupid after the Point. Next year--next June--when
Marshall graduated Jessie was to go and see that wonderful spot, and
go she did with Pappoose, too, and though it was all as beautiful as
Pappoose had described, and the scene and the music and the parades
and all were splendid, there was no deliriously lovely hop, for in those
days there could be no dancing in the midst of examinations. There was
only the one great ball given by the second to the graduating class, and
Marshall had so many, many other and older girls to dance with and
say good-by to he had only time for a few words with his sister and her
shy, silent little friend with the big brown eyes to whom he had been so
kind the previous summer, when there were three hops a week and not
so many hoppers in long dresses. Still, Marshall had one dance with
each and introduced nice boys from the lower classes, and it was all
very well, only not what Pappoose had painted, and Jessie couldn't help
thinking and saying it might all have been so much sweeter if it hadn't

been for that odious Miss Brockway, about whom Marshall hovered
altogether too much, but, like the little Indian the girls sometimes said
she was, Pappoose looked on and said nothing.
All the same, Mr. Dean had had a glorious graduation summer of it,
though Jessie saw too little of him, and Pappoose nothing at all after the
breakup of the class. In September the girls returned to school, friends
as close as ever, even though a little cloud overshadowed the hitherto
unbroken confidences, and Marshall joined the cavalry, as old Folsom
had suggested, and took to the saddle, the prairie, the bivouac, and
buffalo hunt as though native and to the manner born. They were
building the Union Pacific then, and he and his troop, with dozens of
others scattered along the line, were busy scouting the neighborhood,
guarding the surveyors, the engineers, and finally the track-layers, for
the jealous red men swarmed in myriads all along the way, lacking only
unanimity, organization, and leadership to enable them