At the river-side the children have great fun while filling their various jars and kettles; they duck and splash each other, run, scream, laugh, and often forget entirely that the village is waiting for its daily supply of water, until the shrill voice of some squaw mother warns them that they are neglecting their duty, and if they do not attend to it at once they will have to suffer the consequences.
[Illustration: GETTING WATER FOR THE VILLAGE--DRAWN BY W. M. CARY.]
The sketch for the accompanying picture was made in Dakota one bright morning last summer, and represents the children of a Sioux village near Fort Berthold, going down to the Missouri River with their dogs and ponies for a supply of water. These dogs look more like wolves than the dogs to which we are accustomed, and to strangers or those whom they regard as enemies they are very savage, but with their little Indian masters they are very patient, and from them will bear any amount of abuse.
The jars that the children are filling are made by their mothers from the clay of the river-banks, and resemble in shape those borne on the heads of the Egyptian women who carry water on the banks of the Nile.
It was the office-boy who heard it all. He told it to the janitor, and the janitor told it to the night-watchman. Both of them said they never heard anything like it.
"Ghosts and spooks and spirits ain't anything to it," said the watchman.
"You ought to know," said the janitor. "You prowl about here all night."
"I never heard a single book say a thing, much less a lot of letters."
Then the office-boy had to tell the whole story all over again.
The letters had come up from the office, and were laid on the desk ready for the editor of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, when the office-boy came into the room. All the letters had been cut open, and lay in a heap on the desk, and the boy was just going to take one up, when he heard a thin, rustling, papery voice speak right out, and say, "Can't you let a fellow out?"
"Yes, sir," said the boy, opening the door.
There was no one there. Besides all that, the doors were all unlocked, and any one who wished to do so could get out. The office-boy thought it was very queer, and he went back to the desk and sat down.