But Melisse was like her mother. In the dreams of
the two who were planning out her fate, she was to be a reincarnation
of her mother. That dream left a ray of comfort in Cummins' breast
when his wife died. It stirred happy visions within Jan. And it ended
with a serious shock when Maballa brought into their mental
perspective of things the possibilities of environment.
So far as Cummins knew, there was not a white woman nearer than Fort
Churchill, two hundred miles away. In all that region he knew of only
two full-white men, and they were Williams and himself. The baby
Melisse was hopelessly lost in a world of savagery; honest, loyal,
big-souled savagery--but savagery for all that, and the thought of it
brought the shadows of fear and foreboding to the two into whose lives
the problem had just come.
Long into the night they talked seriously of the matter, while Melisse
slept; and the longer they talked, the greater loomed the problem
before them. Cummins fancied that he already began to see signs of the
transformation in Melisse. She was passionately fond of the gaudy
things Maballa gave her, which was a sign of savagery. She was charmed
by confinement in the papoose-sling, which was another sign of it; and
she had not died in the snow-wallows--which was still another.
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