many white boys I have seen and _heard_. They are not all alike any more
than white boys are. Some are naturally very bright and quick to think
and to act, and others not as much so. Some of the boys and men are
diligent and hard workers, while others are lazy. Some like to study,
and others like better to play. A large new Government boarding-school
has been lately built in our little village for the Dakota boys and
girls. One very cold day, a boy, perhaps fourteen years old, came
walking fifteen miles, without overcoat or mittens, and alone, to ask if
he might be received as a pupil in the new school. I think he must be
one of the boys who likes to study, and who wants to learn. Such boys
get ahead. Some Indian boys are naturally very gentle in their manner,
and although their clothing may be ragged and dirty, and the homes in
which they live are not nearly so bright and attractive as perhaps your
father's stable is, yet these boys appear as gentlemanly as if
accustomed to the little courtesies of the parlor in civilized life. One
verse in the Bible says: "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he," and I
think it is the gentle thoughts in the hearts of these Indian boys that
make some of them so truly _gentlemen_, notwithstanding their
surroundings and lack of training.

Some things that they say and do are very funny. After one of our
village boys had been to the new boarding-school two or three weeks, he
came to our house one day of an errand. While he waited, he said to
Winona (that is Miss Collins) "Do you sleep on a bed the way we do at
school?" She told him that she did, and then he said: "A long time ago,
when I was little and not very wise, I used to come here to your house,
and I always thought you slept on that table [the dining-table] but, now
I am beginning to see clearly."

The same ten-year-old friend gave me a lesson one day in digging