VI
The Making of the Teepee
Raften sniffed in amusement when he heard that the boys had reallygone to Caleb and got what they wanted. Nothing pleased him more thanto find his son a successful schemer.
"Old Caleb wasn't so dead sure about the teepee, as near as I sizedhim up," observed Sam.
"I guess we've got enough to go ahead on," said Yan, "an' tain't ahanging matter if we do make a mistake."
The cover was spread out again flat and smooth on the barn floor, andstones and a few nails put in the sides to hold it.
The first thing that struck them was that it was a rough and tatteredold rag.
And Sam remarked: "I see now why Da said we could have it. I reckonwe'll have to patch it before we cut out the teepee."
"No," said Yan, assuming control, as he was apt to do in matterspertaining to the woods; "we better draw our plans first so as not topatch any part that's going to be cut off afterward."
"Great head! But I'm afraid them patches won't be awful ornamental."
"They're all right," was the reply. "Indians' teepees are oftenpatched where bullets and arrows have gone through."
"Well, I'm glad I wa'n't living inside during them hostilities," andSam exposed a dozen or more holes.
"Oh, get off there and give me that cord."
"Look out," said Sam; "that's my festered knee. It's near as badto-day as it was when we called on the witch."
Yan was measuring. "Let's see. We can cut off all those rags and stillmake a twelve-foot teepee. Twelve foot high--that will be twenty-fourfeet across the bottom of the stuff. Fine! That's just the thing. NowI'll mark her off."
"Hold on, there," protested his friend; "you can't do that with chalk.Caleb said the Injuns used a burnt stick. You hain't got no right touse chalk. 'You might as well hire a carpenter.'"
"Oh, you go on. You hunt for a burnt stick, and if you don't find onebring me the shears instead."
Thus, with many consultations of Caleb's draft, the cutting-outwas done--really a very simple matter. Then the patching was to beconsidered.
Pack-thread, needles and _very l-o-n-g_ stitches were used, butthe work went slowly on. All the spare time of one day was given topatching. Sam, of course, kept up a patter of characteristic remarksto the piece he was sewing. Yan sewed in serious silence. At firstSam's were put on better, but Yan learned fast and at length did byfar the better sewing.
Decoration of Black Bull's Teepee: (Two Examples ofDoors)]
THUNDER BULL'S TEEPEE]
Notes on Making Teepee:
The slimmer the poles are at the top where they cross the smaller the opening in the canvas and the less danger of rain coming in.
In regions where there is much rain it is well to cut the projecting poles very short and put over them a "storm cap," "bull boat" or "shield" made of canvas on a rod bent in a three-foot circle. This device was used by the Mandans over the smoke-hole of their lodges during the heavy rains.
That night the boys were showing their handiwork to the hired hands.Si Lee, a middle-aged man with a vast waistband, after looking onwith ill-concealed but good-natured scorn, said:
"Why didn't ye put the patches inside?"
"Didn't think of it," was Yan's answer.
"Coz we're goin' to live inside, an' need the room," said Sam.
"Why did ye make ten stitches in going round that hole; ye could justas easy have done it in four," and Si sniffed as he pointed to great,ungainly stitches an inch long. "I call that waste labour."
"Now see here," blurted Sam, "if you don't like our work let's see youdo it better. There's lots to do yet."
"Where?"
"Oh, ask Yan. He's bossin' the job. Old Caleb wouldn't let me in. Itjust broke my heart. I sobbed all the way home, didn't I, Yan?
"There's the smoke-flaps to stitch on and hem, and the pocket atthe top of the flaps--and--I--suppose," Yan added, as a feeler,"it--would--be--better--if--hemmed--all--around."
"Now, I tell ye what I'll do. If you boys'll go to the 'Corner'to-night and get my boots that the cobbler's fixing, I'll sew on thesmoke-flaps."
"I'll take that offer," said Yan; "and say, Si, it doesn't reallymatter which is the outside. You can turn the cover so the patcheswill be in."
The boys got the money to pay for the boots, and after supper they setout on foot for the "Corner," two miles away.
"He's a queer duck," and Sam jerked his thumb back to show that hemeant Si Lee; "sounds like a Chinese laundry. I guess that's the onlything he isn't. He can do any mortal thing but get on in life. He'sbeen a soldier an' a undertaker an' a cook He plays a fiddle he madehimself; it's a rotten bad one, but it's away ahead of his playing. Hestuffs birds--that Owl in the parlour is his doin'; he tempers razors,kin doctor a horse or fix up a watch, an' he does it in about the sameway, too; bleeds a horse no matter what ails it, an' takes anotherwheel out o' the watch every times he cleans it. He took Larry deNeuville's old clock apart to clean once--said he knew all aboutit--an' when he put it together again he had wheels enough left overfor a new clock.
"He's too smart an' not smart enough. There ain't anything on earthhe can't do a little, an' there ain't a blessed thing that he can doright up first-class, but thank goodness sewing canvas is his longsuit. You see he was a sailor for three years--longest time he everkept a job, fur which he really ain't to blame, since it was a whaleron a three-years' cruise."
Two Little Savages Page 22