The boy was about fifteen years old.  He tried to stand very straight and still when he heard the news, but inside of him everything had gone black.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t endure pain.  In summer he would put a stone hot from the fire on his flesh to see how long he could stand it.  In winter he would sit in the icy river until his Indian father smoking on the bank said he could come out.  It made him strong against any hardship that would come to him, his father said.  But if it had any effect on this thing that had come to him now, the boy couldn’t tell what it was.

For days word had been reaching the Indian village that the Lenni Lenape and Shawanose must give up their white prisoners.  Never for a moment did the boy dream that it meant him.  Why, he had been one of them ever since he could remember!

Due January 25, 2012

Due January 27, 2012