The Girl Who Married The Star (Twenty-Third Evening)

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Title:     The Girl Who Married The Star (Twenty-Third Evening)
Author: Charles Alexander Eastman [More Titles by Eastman]

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING

"Ah, here is our little Humming-bird, always the first to raise the door-flap!" is the old teacher's pleasant greeting.

"That is because I do not want to lose one word of your good stories, Grandfather," murmurs the little maiden, with her pretty, upward glance and bashful smile.

"I have one for you to-night that ought to please you," he answers thoughtfully. "You know the shining Star people in the heavens above us--you have gazed upon them and doubtless dreamed that you were among them. We believe them to be a higher race than ours. Listen, then, to my story."

 

THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE STAR

There were once two sisters who lived alone in an uninhabited place. This was a long time ago, when the tribes upon earth were few, and the animal people were friendly to man. The name of one of the girls was Earth, and the other was called Water.

All their food was brought to them by their animal friends. The Bears supplied them with nuts, berries and wild turnips, and the Bees brought combs dripping with honey. They ate no flesh, for that would be to take life. They dwelt in a lodge made of birch-bark, and their beds were mats woven of rushes.

One clear, summer night the girls lay awake upon their beds, looking up through the smoke-hole of their wigwam and telling one another all their thoughts.

"Sister," said the Earth, "I have seen a handsome young man in my dreams, and it seemed to me that he came from up yonder!"

"I too have seen a man in my dreams," replied her sister, "and he was a great brave."

"Do you not think these bright stars above us are the sky men of whom we have dreamed?" suggested the Earth.

"If that is true, sister, and it may be true," said the Water, "I choose that brightest Star for my husband!"

"And I," declared her sister, "choose for my husband that little twinkling Star!"

By and by the sisters slept; and when they awoke, they found themselves in the sky! The husband of the elder sister who had chosen the bright star was an old warrior with a shining name, but the husband of the younger girl was a fine-looking young man, who had as yet no great reputation.

The Star men were kind to their wives, who lived very happily in their new home. One day they went out to dig wild turnips, and the old warrior said to his wife:

"When you are digging, you must not hit the ground too hard!"

The younger man also warned his wife, saying:

"Do not hit the ground too hard!"

However, the Earth forgot, and in her haste she struck the ground so hard with the sharp-pointed stick with which she dug turnips, that the floor of the sky was broken and she fell through.

Two very old people found the poor girl lying in the meadow.

They kindly made for her a little wigwam of pine boughs, and brought ferns for her bed. The old woman nursed her as well as she could, but she did nothing but wail and cry.

"Let me go to him!" she begged. "I cannot live without my husband!"

Night came, and the stars appeared in the sky as usual. Only the little twinkling Star did not appear, for he was now a widower and had painted his face quite black.

The poor wife waited for him a long time, but he did not come, because he could not. At last she slept, and dreamed she saw a tiny red Star in the sky that had not been there before.

"Ah!" said she, "that is Red Star, my son!"

In the morning she found at her side a pretty little boy, a Star Boy, who afterward grew to be a handsome young man and had many adventures. His guides by night through the pathless woods were the Star children of his mother's sister, his cousins in the sky.

[The end]
Charles Alexander Eastman's short story: Girl Who Married The Star (Twenty-Third Evening)

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