Sunday was to be the eventful day, and as early as half past nine the
congregation began to arrive. When the bell rang for service, the
school-room was filled almost immediately. Everything possible was
utilized for seats; trunks, boxes, wagon-seats, kegs, and those who
could not be provided with seats sat on the floor. There were probably a
hundred in all. The weight of so many people on the floor was too much
for the sleepers. Some of them gave way, and the floor settled somewhat,
but the audience was not "nervous" and was only amused. As I sat at the
organ, a group outside the door attracted my attention; several bright
faced girls, their shawls drawn over their heads with a grace a white
girl might envy, but could not hope to attain, and beyond them a face
that would pass on the most perfectly appointed stage for one of
Macbeth's witches, without being "made-up." The faces of some of the men
were as wooden and expressionless as the figures in front of a tobacco
shop, but these are they into whose lives the power of the Gospel of the
Son of God has not come. After this service came the church meeting, and
a Cheyenne River branch church was established which still has
connection with the mother church at Oahe.

The school-room being too small for the afternoon communion service,
this was held out of doors. There must have been a hundred and fifty
present, perhaps more. First came a marriage ceremony, then the
admission of four new members, and the baptism of two children. Probably
four-fifths of the congregation had been drawn thither merely from
curiosity, and on the faces of many of these were the traces of
yesterday's paint. The simple service, which the new communion set made
perfect, could not fail to impress them that there is something better
than they have known. At its close, Edwin Phelps's scholars stood and
sang "Whiter than Snow," in Dakota. Have not those girls gained a great