Rewards and Fairies - Penn State University

Rudyard Kipling
going about. And so we jogged ‘into dozy little Lebanon by cause, d’ye see, I talked French and English.
the Blue Mountains, where Toby had a cottage and a garden ‘They had their own opinions (I’ve heard ‘em) about the
of all fruits. He come north every year for this wonderful French and the English, and the Americans. They’d suffered
Seneca Oil the Seneca Indians made for him. They’d never from all of ‘em during the wars, and they only wished to be
sell to any one else, and he doctored ‘em with von Swieten left alone. But they thought a heap of the President of the
pills, which they valued more than their own oil. He could United States. Cornplanter had had dealings with him in some
do what he chose with them, and, of course, he tried to make French wars out West when General Washington was only a
them Moravians. The Senecas are a seemly, quiet people, and lad. His being President afterwards made no odds to ‘em.
they’d had trouble enough from white men—American and They always called him Big Hand, for he was a large-fisted
English—during the wars, to keep ‘em in that walk. They man, and he was all of their notion of a white chief.
lived on a Reservation by themselves away off by their lake. Cornplanter ‘ud sweep his blanket round him, and after I’d
Toby took me up there, and they treated me as if I was their filled his pipe he’d begin— “In the old days, long ago, when
own blood brother. Red Jacket said the mark of my bare feet braves were many and blankets were few, Big Hand said—”
in the dust was just like an Indian’s and my style of walking If Red Jacket agreed to the say-so he’d trickle a little smoke
was similar. I know I took to their ways all over.’
out of the corners of his mouth. If he didn’t, he’d blow through
‘Maybe the gipsy drop in your blood helped you?’ said Puck. his nostrils. Then Cornplanter ‘ud stop and Red Jacket ‘ud
‘Sometimes I think it did,’ Pharaoh went on. ‘Anyhow, Red take on. Red Jacket was the better talker of the two. I’ve laid
Jacket and Cornplanter, the other Seneca chief, they let me be and listened to ‘em for hours. Oh! they knew General Wash-
adopted into the tribe. It’s only a compliment, of course, but ington well. Cornplanter used to meet him at Epply’s—the
Toby was angry when I showed up with my face painted. great dancing-place in the city before District Marshal Will-
They gave me a side-name which means “Two Tongues,” beiam Nichols bought it. They told me he was always glad to
99