Off To See The Wild West Show Part 1, Chapter 13 (3/6) By Frank Beill 1886: Hull, Yorkshire

(1/6), (2/6), (3/6), (4/6), (5/6), (6/6). Part 1 Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Part 2 Prologue, Chapter 1, 2, 3.

A large bundle of animal skin blankets and clothing was heaped into my arms before we trooped from the Emigrant Shed across the wet cobblestones of the quayside. All I could see ahead of us above my bundle was the steaming funnel of a ship. I followed Laughing Waters across the gangplank swaying above the murky water between quay and ship. A sailor's son, who'd lived in the Sailors' Children's Orphanage and this was my first time ever on board a ship. Surely someone must stop me and ask who I was and why I was there but no challenge came. I followed my family below deck and down narrow stairways. Eventually we finished up in a large cabin on a lower deck.

At last, I could put down my load, which felt heavier and heavier the further we walked. For a moment I'd forgotten I was hungry and flopped onto one of bunks at the side of the room ready to go back to sleep. It came as a surprise to see my fellows making up their beds on the floor.

The passage of time became meaningless on this magic day. The performance took little more than an hour but the enchantment was too great for me to realise this. I was asleep in the wagon but again I didn't know for how long. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was hungry again. It didn't take me long to remember. There would be no problem scaling another mountain of beans and sausages or a whole buffalo. Laughing Waters led me out the cabin into the alien world of the Persian Monarch. The journey to the dining room took us along many identical corridors. Tiredness didn't help my disorientation.

As a member of the Lakota I would be expected to eat like one of them. This was among many things I'd have to learn. Most of them preferred to take their food out of the dining room and up onto the open deck where they would squat together and eat. It was only those who had attended mission schools and wanted to be assimilated into the white man's ways that remained and sat at tables to eat with a knife and fork but there were few of them.

Fortunately for me the family of Dog That Stands fell into this category or I'd have forgotten any table manners I may have learned. However, it wasn't only their way of eating I'd have to get used to. It was also what they ate. Each brave seemed to eat enough beef at one sitting to feed an entire orphanage and I don't think any of them had ever heard of greens or potatoes. George would have fitted in very well at meal times. It was a wise decision to learn to eat like them. I was used to a meat and two vegetable diet at the orphanage, but if I'd selected this familiar combination or one of the delicious looking puddings on offer I would have attracted attention.

We approached the bearded men in their white jackets serving the food, but before we got to them Laughing Waters turned towards me and put a finger to her lips.

Continued... Next Page (4/6)

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