Kicking Bird thought for a moment.
'I haven't seen a white woman yet.'
Ten Bears had begun a close inspection of the spectacles but could find nothing familiar enough in their makeup to provide a clue as to how they might work.
'How do they function?' he asked.
'They have arms that fly out.' Kicking Bird's hand instinctively reached for the glasses. 'May I help you, Grandfather?” 'Yes, yes.'
Kicking Bird took Lawrie Tatum's present in both hands, and, with the exactness of a surgeon, slowly unfolded the device. Turning the spectacles around, he lifted them toward Ten Bears' face.
'The arms rest on the ears and the glass on —'
Ten Bears threw up a hand and Kicking Bird stopped.
'Do they cause pain? ' the old man asked.
A worried expression fixed itself on Kicking Bird's face. 'Not in the whites.'
For a moment the two men gazed helplessly at one another. Then Ten Bears gave a little, resigned wave of his hand.
'Oh, put it on. I'm not afraid of it.'
Kicking Bird bent forward once again and the spectacles landed softly on Ten Bears' face. The lodge had grown murky in the twilight, and the old man, unsure of what he might be seeing, brought one of his hands in front of his face.
'Ah!' he cried and, brushing at his face with both hands, flipped the spectacles onto Kicking Bird's legs.
'It's awful! My hand is blurry! I can always see my hand.'
'They are for far-seeing,' Kicking Bird explained hastily. 'We should go outside. Let me help you up, Grandfather.'
Ten Bears let Kicking Bird help him to his feet and tottered to the door rather sheepishly, silently scolding himself for making a fuss over some trivial white trinket. The whites possessed some useful objects, some of them quite decorative, but nothing along the lines of the miracle Kicking Bird had described.
Determined to observe the decorum that befitted his age and place, Ten Bears let Kicking Bird place the white man's invention on his face, thinking he would make a polite comment or two if he saw interesting colors or odd patterns. He did not expect to see a teenager on a horse at the far end of the village and was astounded to find that he recognized the young man.
'How did Sun Boy get in here?' he exclaimed.
'Look to the right,' Kicking Bird suggested.
'It's Otter Belt. He's leading some horses.'
'Look left.'
'Bird Woman shaking out a robe. .'
Ten Bears pulled the glasses off his face and looked dorm at them with a mixture of respect and awe.
'This is a good trick. . but how do they get people inside these discs? And how do they know what the people I see look like?” 'You don't understand, Grandfather. .”
“No.'
'Put them on.'
Ten Bears did as his friend asked.
'Everything you see is here in camp. Sun Boy was riding his horse just now. Otter Belt was bringing in his animals. Bird Woman was shaking out a robe. Looking through the discs makes your eyes new.” Ten Bears fixed the glasses over his nose and ears, this time without help, and commenced searching out a succession of objects both living and inert. AII the while he kept his fingers on the frames, tilting the glasses up to check the indistinct images in his eyes against the ones he was seeing through the little discs of glass.
A profound calm settled over Ten Bears as he moved his gray head from one place to another. He stopped tilting the glasses and for a long time stared through his new eyes exclusively. At last he turned to Kicking Bird. The spectacles hung on his face as if they had been there for years.
'You are right. . my eyes are new. I'm going to keep this thing.” 'Good, Grandfather.'
The old man resumed his gazing. Looking over the village so keenly seemed to take the stoop out of him. The addition of the grasses had made him appear straighter and stronger. So intent was he on looking that when he spoke again it sounded like he was talking to himself.
'We must council on all you have told me.”
'Yes, Grandfather.'
'We must talk tonight.'
Chapter XXIX
Smiles A Lot would have spent much more time in his lodge had it not been for the demands of others. Almost as soon as he got home, men started coming by to smoke or invite him out, and after a full day and night of constant interruption, he and Hunting For Something decided to leave Rabbit with one of his uncles, strike the lodge, and move a distance from camp, where they would be left alone.
They had returned at twilight on the day Ten Bears received the miracle of new sight and had just started to unpack when they heard the crier announce an important council that night.
Not long after they had started a fire the voice of Wind In His Hair sounded outside the door and Smiles A Lot was stunned to see him come inside. The great warrior walked to within a pace or two of the boy.
'Sit among the Hard Shields tonight,' Wind In His Hair said. 'The bravest should always sit together.'
Smiles A Lot was too shocked to respond.
Wind In His Hair smiled thinly, reached out, and gave Smiles A Lot's shoulder a few light taps.
'Someone will come by and bring you.'
Then he turned and, a moment later, ducked out the lodge flap.
Smiles A Lot and Hunting For Something had known Wind In His Hair all their lives. They saw him almost every day he was in camp. The history of his life was well known to them and yet they stood mutely, as if they had been poleaxed and would at any second crumble, senseless, to the floor.
As usual, it was Hunting For Something who found her tongue first.
'Sitting with the Hard Shields. .' she said, turning her face to his. 'What does it mean?'
'I don't know.'
'Does Wind In His Hair want you for the Hard Shields?”
'Maybe.'
'He wants you to sit with them.'
'Yes,' he answered. 'Anyway, I have to make ready.”
'I'll help you,' she said excitedly and skipped across the floor for the occasional bag that held Smiles A Lot's things. 'What is this council about? '
'Kicking Bird is going to make some talk,' he answered, settling himself in front of the fire.
As she brushed his hair and oiled it, and found the new moccasins she had just finished for him, she questioned him, but Smiles A Lot, who was usually happy to converse, answered in one-word replies. It was evident that some problem was occupying his thoughts.
'Do I look good?' he asked after he was standing again.
'You look like a warrior.'
Somehow Smiles A Lot was not pleased. With a wince he cast his eyes down and thought a moment more before gazing unhappily into her face.
'I have nothing for my scalplock.'
Hunting For Something was more concerned with his sadness than she was with his scalplock. She wanted to pull him close but did not.
