“We sent those pompous elites packing! The final word of the Spelling Bee competition was ‘wapiti’, the Arapaho word for ‘elk’.” She smiled, knowingly, watching Micah’s reaction.
“Yes! I know a bit of Indian lingo,
myself. Anyway, the elites went Wild when Miss Gertrude
Merriweather-Guilford could not manage the correct spelling; they even tried to
cheat giving her three tries which was strictly against the rules. Of course,
my ‘White antelope’ spelled it
correctly on the very first try.
“They went ‘nuts’! Said it was unfair
for ‘whites’ to have to know Indian words, muchless, how to spell them. I spoke right up asking why Indians needed to
understand English words?
“It got so bad that I wondered if I
might soon know the meaning of ‘Tar and
feather’? For sure, I had heard of ‘Being
ridden out of town on a rail’! And, I could spell ‘all’ of their words.
“The ‘losers’ of the Spelling Bee fired
the elite headmaster sending him back
east.
“I didn’t smell any ‘Tar and feathers’
then, either. I guess he got a ‘free’ rail-ride,
though!”
Traci allowed a tiny laugh, Proud of her
achievement. Suddenly, she felt slightly embarrassed.
“Sorry! Micah! I didn’t mean to gloat.
The result just left me exhilarated!” She smiled.
“With my success at showing ‘pointed’ prejudice, I didn’t stop. I went back to
the editor’s office and asked him to post an ad inviting all the children of Denver to attend my classes.
“Amazingly! He ran the ad absent comment.
‘That’ turned out to be the easy part.
“The Indians continued to come to
school, but, not a single white
student showed up!
“I was disheartened. Then,---one day…a
holy-sacred miracle occurred.
“A Bully-boy
named Bones Fletcher came to the school at dismissal time with five of his
no-account overgrown cohorts. Fletcher knocked Billy Raintree to the ground and
dared the boy to get up saying that if he did, the six would beat him
unconscious.
“Billy is pretty smart and plenty agile.
He told Fletcher that he would gladly fight the brute if Bones would meet him one-on-one without interference from his coward friends.
“Dead silence held in the air for
several seconds. Then, Bones told his troops to stay out of it and he lunged at
Billy Raintree. Adroitly, Billy dodged the clumsy attempted assault dropping to
his knee and kicking Bones legs out from under him; the Bully fell hard skinning his nose which dripped red stream of fresh
blood, and scraping his hands; his pants leg showed a spreading reddening where
his knee had apparently found an errant rock.
“He got up and charged head first at
Billy who adroitly jumped-up placing one hand on either of the Bully-boy’s shoulders launching himself
high enough to spread-legged hurtle over the sizable body of Fletcher, he
landed on his feet and quickly turned to kick bones flush in the seat of his
pants sprawling him, again.
“The Indian children roared their
approval; Bones’ friends grew silent in puzzled amazement.
“Bones was winded---and,
worse…embarrassed. Beaten by an Indian. He rolled onto his back and stared at
his tormentor, too winded to arise.
“Billy smiled and extended his hand to
Bones who slapped it away.
“Billy said, ‘Look! Bones! We can be
friends! It’s up to you; I don’t care one way or the other. But, if you take my hand---and we become
friends…I’ll teach you how to wrestle: Indian-style!’
Laughter erupted among the Indian audience and Bones’ friends. The tension was
broken.
“Finally, after some short deliberation,
Bones reached for Billy’s hand. Billy hoisted the leviathan to his feet and
snatched the dusty hat off Bones’ head promptly dunking it fully into the horse
trough. Bones blinked a vacant
hesitation looking like he might attack, again.
“Billy Raintree defused the possible
explosion as he placed a dripping hat on Bones’ head complete with a brimful of
water. Swish! Bones looked like a
drowned cat; the assemblage Hooted and Howled at the display while pointing
at the result, even Bones’ friends joined in.
(Part 7 of 9 Tomorrow)
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