suddenly, outside the wigwam, a twig snapped. there was,—yes, there certainly was a rustle in the bushes. steps were creeping towards the wigwam. it sounded like an indian. kenneth grabbed his bow and arrows. rose kept very still, but her fingers trembled. they both sat staring at the door of the wigwam.
stealthily a face came peering around the side of the door—a dark, reddish-brown face, with bright eyes. then another face appeared; then another. it seemed as if the fog were full of eager faces and shiny, black eyes.
“it is the indians!” said kenneth to himself. “at last they have really come!” he lifted his bow and pointed the arrow at the face of the tallest indian. but just as he was about to let the arrow fly, the head in the doorway moved and a voice cried,—
“don’t shoot! i am a friend.”
kenneth’s arm dropped with surprise, and as it did so a figure stole into the tent. behind it, out of the fog, crept five other figures in indian file, each shorter than the one before it. they were none of them big or terrible. the tallest was about kenneth’s own height, and the smallest was hardly more than a baby. three of them were boys and three were girls, and the little ones kept behind the others as if they were afraid.
“ho!” said kenneth. “i thought at first you were indians!” and he began to laugh.
the biggest boy laughed, too. “no, we aren’t indians,” he said shyly. “we are captain prout’s children from the cove. i am tom and this is mary. that one with the freckles is susan, and the three little ones are bill and bob and jane.”
“the little prouts!” exclaimed rose; and they all looked at one another curiously. although[12] kenneth and rose had been coming to the island for years, this was the first time that they had stood face to face with their little neighbors who brought the milk every morning. the prout children had always been very shy. after they had stared for some time, kenneth remembered to be polite.
“how do you do?” he said. “i am kenneth thornton, and this is my sister rose.”
“oh, we know who you are,” said mary prout, “and we knew you came yesterday. we heard you yell for help just now, and we guessed where we’d find you. we were right close by. we were coming back to get the berries that sue left here,”—she stopped abruptly, seeing the empty pail which rose was holding.
“oh, i am so sorry!” said rose. “we have eaten all your lovely berries; but we thought the fairies had brought them to us.” then they all laughed and felt better acquainted. “i suppose this is your shawl, too?” asked rose, pulling it off.
[13]“yes,” said mary, “but you are very welcome to it and the berries, too. i am so glad we left them here!”
“but how did you know about our wigwam?” said kenneth.
the little prouts looked at one another and laughed. “why, you see,” said tom, “we thought it was our wigwam. we built it, you know”—
“you built it!” interrupted kenneth and rose together.
“we thought it was the indians,” explained kenneth.
“what clever children you are!” said rose admiringly.
the little prouts looked pleased and proud. the three smallest ones stole out from behind tom and mary and sue, and stood in a half circle around kenneth and rose.
“then we had no right to come here at all,” said kenneth, much mortified. “we were very rude to walk into your house and eat up your berries and wear your shawl. but we did not[14] know. come, rose;” and he started for the door.
“oh, please don’t go!” begged tom and mary together. and susan and bill and bob and jane said, “please don’t go!”
“won’t you stay and play indian hunter, the way you did that day last year?” said tom eagerly.
“why, how did you know about that?” asked kenneth, in surprise. “you were not here.”
“yes, we were,” nodded mary. “we were right over there behind the big rock. we watched you all the time.”
“why didn’t you come and play with us?” said rose. “it would have been so much nicer with eight of us, instead of two.”
the faces of the little prouts lighted up joyously. “oh, would you play with us?” said tommy.
“we didn’t dare, then,” said mary shyly. “but now it’s different.”
susan drew close to rose and touched her[15] hand gently. “we know about ‘brothers and sisters’ now,” she said. “you told in the letter when you sent us the box of lovely christmas things that we were all like brothers and sisters together, because we had one father. so we aren’t going to be afraid of you any more. you were so kind to us!”
“oh, that’s all right,” said kenneth awkwardly, for he hated to be thanked. “we didn’t do anything. but it will be fine to have a big band of indians and pirates. shall we play indian now?”
“yes!” they all cried, dancing up and down like real little indians. and so they played together. tommy was the indian chief, and rose, bill, and little jane were in his band. kenneth was hawkeye, the famous indian hunter, with mary for his trusty guide, and susan and bob were his scouts.
all that morning the foggy forest rang with the sound of war whoops and the shouts of victorious hunters, as the fights raged about the wigwam. it was great fun. the indian[16] chief knew the woods so well that he could find his way everywhere, even in the thick fog. hawkeye would have had a hard time trying to find him but for the service of his brave scouts. as it was, they had some narrow escapes from being scalped. but they finally captured jane-little-injun as their prisoner.
by this time they knew, because of their hungriness, that it must be noon. so they called a parley with the indians, and smoked a peace pipe—susan found one growing in the forest.
“i suppose we must go home,” said kenneth, with a sigh. then his face fell. the fog was thicker than ever, and he knew that he could never find his way home. he hated to confess it to the indian chief. but tommy prout was a thoughtful indian.
“we have smoked the peace pipe,” he said. “now we indians will go with hawkeye and his braves and show you the quick trail home.”
and back through the fog they went in[17] indian file, talking and laughing and telling one another about things which were so different in the city and on the island; for the little prouts were full of eager questions about the city, which they had never seen, while kenneth and rose were just as anxious to know what the island was like in the winter.
when they reached the broad path by the back door, tommy and the other prout children said good-by, and started back to the cove, because it was late, and their father and mother did not know where they were.
“good-by,” said kenneth and rose.
“don’t forget to come to-morrow to play with us again,” added kenneth.
“be sure and bring your dolls,” said rose to the little girls. “and they shall all play with my alice under the beech tree.”
you can imagine whether or not the little prouts promised to come.
