Bible and a few words of song had been given to the Gros-Ventres in
their own tongue, and every Sabbath there were attentive Indian
listeners, but would there ever be a Gros-Ventre convert? "The Bear's
Tooth" continued to come to us, and learned to understand quite fully
the requirements of our faith. He became a trusted helper in charge of
the mission cattle and the milking, working regularly as few Indians
would do at Berthold, and he soon had stock of his own in which he took
great pleasure. He read the Bible on Sabbath afternoons with one who was
soon called to her reward; it was almost her last prayer that he might
be saved. He came in spite of dissuasions, jeers, and even persecutions
from his people, and yet he took no stand for Christ. Three years after,
there were Indian inquirers, and he helped to explain to them the
demands of Christ, but they all felt that "the way was too hard for
them" and "went away sorrowful."

Some of the young people who had been taken away to school and removed
from the opposition of their people had confessed Christ, but there were
none to face it here and say that they loved him. "The Bear's Tooth"
took a wife in the Indian way, unwilling to marry, and removed, as it
seemed, away from our influence, to a claim forty miles up the river
from our mission station.

But God dealt with him and afflicted him in the loss of his babes, and
of his stock, so that he said, "It seems as though I could acquire
nothing. Explain it to me; the Indians say it is because I follow your
teaching." I taught him from the book of Job, and the words of Christ.
His soul was hungry, and when he came once in two weeks for his
government rations, he sought the bread of life at the mission. Finally,
after nearly eight years, one summer day he came and sat on a bench in
the shade of the house in a little flower garden, and after we had