Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods by Laura Lee Hope
page 57 of 205 (27%)
page 57 of 205 (27%)
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on the reservation, and though he usually spoke fairly good English,
sometimes he talked as his grandfather had done when he was a boy and the early settlers first had to do with the Indians. And when Eagle Feather called the children's toys "heap big medicine," he did not mean exactly the kind of medicine you have to take when you are sick. The Indians have two kinds of medicine, as they call it. One is made of the roots and barks of trees, berries and bushes which they take, and some of which we still use, like witch hazel and sassafras. But they also have another kind of medicine, which is like what might be called a charm; as some pretty stone, a feather, a bone or two, or anything they might have picked up in the woods as it took their fancy. These things they wear around their necks or arms and think they keep away sickness and bad luck. So when Eagle Feather called the toy train and the Teddy bear of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, "heap big medicine," he meant they would be good not only to cure sickness without medicine, but also keep bad luck away from whoever had them. "Now we'll help find your cow, Eagle Feather," said Bunny, for he was no more afraid of the Indian than you would be of the fireman down in the engine house at the end of your street, or the policeman on your block. Bunny and Sue had lived in the Big Woods so long now, and had seen the Indians so often, even to learning the names of some of them, that they thought no more of them than of some of the farmers round about. "All right--we go find cow," said Eagle Feather. "No milk for little |
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