Night of the Full Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

that all the Potawatomi had been taken west by the soldiers.” Mama looked more puzzled than ever. “But how did you find Libby?” Her arms were back around me, and I could feel her tears against my cheek. “I thought we would never see you again.”

    We told Mama the story. When Papa came back, we told it all over again. Then Mama and Papa wanted to hear it another time. All the while Mama was getting food for us. She coaxed Menisikwe and Sanatuwa and Fawn and me to eat more and exclaimed over Megisi. “We can’t ever thank you enough,” Mama said to Sanatuwa. “You risked your lives to bring Libby back to us.”
    “What will you do now?” Papa asked. “The soldiers may come back. You and your family must stay with us. They won’t think of looking for you here.”
    “We will stay for a day and a night,” said Sanatuwa. Fawn and I smiled at each other. We would be together for another whole night and a day. “Then we will go to the north, to our winter hunting grounds at L’arbre Croche. Some of the People live there all year around with the Ojibwa. We will be welcome and we will see no soldiersthat far north.” Hearing that her family might leave forever, Fawn and I were no longer smiling.
    Just then we heard loud crying. Menisikwe hurried across the room. “Ahhh,” she said. She was looking into the cradle she had woven. In all the excitement I had forgotten about the baby.
    “Like Fawn, you have a little brother, Libby,” Papa said. “Better get acquainted with William.”
    I ran to look at the new baby. He was so small. I reached down to take my brother’s hand. His tiny fingers curled around my finger.
    Sanatuwa stood beside me. “That is a fine boy,” he said.
    Mama said, “Menisikwe, you had better teach me to carry William on my back as you do Megisi. We too may be traveling north. No sooner do we have a comfortable cabin and neighbors close by than my husband talks of moving.” Mama didn’t sound very happy.
    “So far it is only a dream,” Papa said. “Butthings are changing here. I have been hired to survey land for a canal from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. Think of the people that would bring! In our village of Saginaw plans have been drawn up for a town with four hundred blocks. That is not a town; it is a city! We are sorry to see you and your family leave us, Sanatuwa, but we may be neighbors again one day.”
    I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave our cabin for a place in the north woods. But I wasn’t sure, either, if I wanted to say good-bye forever to Fawn.
    Fawn and I whispered far into the night. “Will you promise always to be my friend? No matter how far away you go?” I asked Fawn.
    “Always,” she promised. “It will be as if you are one of our clan.” She took the small silver eagle on a string of rawhide from around her neck and gave it to me. I gave her my bracelet with the tiny gold heart that had belonged to my grandmother.
    In the morning Papa had a plan.“Sanatuwa, it is the law that if an Indian buys his land he is not subject to treaties. He cannot be sent away.”
    “But I own no land,” Sanatuwa said. “And I have no money to buy land.”
    “I have land,” Papa said. “More than I need. I will give you some. It is a small return for risking your lives to bring Libby back to us. That way you would not have to leave.”
    Sanatuwa was quiet. Fawn and I held our breath. At last he said to Papa, “You are a good man, but I cannot take your land. I would own the land, but the land would also own me. I would be like a dog chained to a post.”
    Papa sadly shook his head. “I will not try to persuade you against your will, Sanatuwa, for I feel too much as you do.”
    Mama filled a basket with food. Papa gave Sanatuwa a rifle so he could hunt on the way north. Then we watched our friends walk down our path, past the pond, and into the woods.

Author’s Note
    Although
Night of the Full Moon
is fiction, the story is based, in part, on various accounts of the