Hinpoha believed firmly in the potency of her charms.
But alas for charms and good luck signs! Maybe the Fates stand in awe of them, but they are powerless in the case of a goat. The Winnebagos reached home just in time to see Many Eyes, impaled on Kaiser Bill"s horns, borne swiftly through the garden toward the stable. Sahwah shrieked and darted in pursuit, whereupon the Kaiser collided with a tree and drove his whole head and shoulders through the paper form of Many Eyes and splintered her ribs like toothpicks. Then he dashed round and round the garden at top speed, scattering bits of her tail in his wake. By the time he had finally been subdued with an open umbrella there was not enough left of Many Eyes to know that she had ever been a kite.
The Winnebagos stood dumb with dismay and Sahwah nearly strangled with mingled rage and disappointment.
"We"re finished, as far as the contest is concerned," said Agony gloomily.
Sahwah turned her back sharply and winked her eyes hard to keep the tears from falling. She had worked _so_ hard to build Many Eyes, and here was all her work gone for nothing, all on account of that fiendish goat!
"Somebody will have to go and tell the Scouts that we withdraw our entry, I suppose," said Migwan.
"Yes, and maybe they won"t believe that the goat smashed it," said Agony darkly. "Maybe they"ll think we fell down on making a kite, or got cold feet or something."
Sahwah"s eyes flashed and she whirled around fiercely, galvanized into action by Agony"s words. "That Scout I was talking to was so sure we couldn"t make a kite, and I was just aching to show him!" she said with tragic emphasis. Then resolution kindled in her eyes. "I said we were going into that contest, and we _are_! They"ll never get a chance to say we backed down! I"m going to make another kite!"
"Oh, Sahwah, there isn"t time," said Hinpoha hopelessly. "It"s twelve o"clock already and the contest starts at two."
"Two hours!" replied Sahwah. "I can make one in two hours."
"But you haven"t had your lunch----" began Hinpoha.
"Lunch!" exclaimed Sahwah scornfully. "Who wants any lunch? I"m going to build another kite!"
She sped into the house and in a few moments was busy nailing together another frame while the rest of the Winnebagos stood around and handed her tacks, paper, paste, and everything as she needed it. By half past one another Primitive Woman had been evolved by her flying fingers, Migwan and Gladys hastily constructing the tail while Sahwah made the kite proper.
"I believe I"d have time to paint a face on her," said Hinpoha. She seized her brush and put in an eye with rapid strokes. The clock chimed a quarter to two and Sahwah started up nervously.
"There isn"t time to do any more, Hinnpoha," she said. "We"ll just have time to get there now. She"ll just have to go as she is."
"But can you call her Many Eyes if she only has one eye?" objected Hinpoha.
"Never mind what we call her," said Sahwah. "She"s a kite, and that"s all she needs to be. Call her One Eye if you like. What have you put in her tail?"
"Some of those little sample bags of salt," replied Migwan. "They were the only things we could find to put in as weights."
"Salt"s bad luck!" wailed Hinpoha. "Oh, whatever did you take salt for?"
"Too late to change now," said Sahwah.
Agony looked scornfully at the new edition of Many Eyes. "For goodness"
sake, you aren"t going to enter that thing in the contest?" she exclaimed when she saw it. "Why, it looks perfectly _crazy_. Everybody will laugh at it. I"d rather stay out of the contest than enter such a looking kite. It looks like a scarecrow! For goodness" sake, don"t enter _that_!"
Sahwah had to admit that the new Many Eyes _was_ a rather laughable object, with her one eye and her miscellaneous tail and her one arm covered with yellow paper where the brown had given out.
"I don"t care _what she looks like, she"ll fly_," said Sahwah stoutly.
"Well, _I_ care what she looks like," returned Agony. "I tell you everybody will laugh at us and our one-eyed kite."
"Let them laugh," retorted Sahwah, "I don"t care."
"Oh, come on," said Migwan good-naturedly, "stop arguing about it. If we"re going into the contest we"ll have to get there pretty soon. We won"t win, of course, but we"ll show the boys that we"re game, anyway.
Like the "poor, benighted Hindoo," we"ll "do the best we _kin_ do!" Be a sport, Agony, and come on."
Sahwah gathered up her kite in her arms and started for the door. Going through the hall she knocked Hinpoha"s little purse mirror from the table and smashed it all to bits. Hinpoha was aghast. "Bad luck again!"
she wailed.
"Never mind, "Poha, I"ll buy you another mirror," said Sahwah. "Just leave the pieces, I"ll sweep them up when I come back."
Agony scolded about the crazy-looking kite all the way to Commons Field and Hinpoha resignedly accepted the fact that luck was against them, and they might as well not enter the contest. To all of their remarks Sahwah paid no heed, stubbornly keeping her determination to enter her beloved kite.
"We"ve got to be sports now and not back down," was the only thing she would say.
"Yes," said Migwan, "remember--"
""Tis better to have flown and lost Than never to have flown at all!""
The other entries had already arrived on the scene when the Winnebagos got there, and a good many of the Oakwood boys and girls had a.s.sembled to watch the contest. Commons Field was a five-acre lot running down to the river on the eastern side of the town, used as baseball field, footfall field, and general sporting grounds. It was a sort of natural amphitheatre, for a gra.s.sy hill curved around two sides of it, making an ideal place for the spectators to sit and watch what was going on below.
Lists of the entries in the contest had been posted on various trees.
GREAT KITE FLYING CONTEST
_Entries_
VICTORY BIRD........................Troop No. 1 Boy Scouts SKYSc.r.a.pER..........................Troop No. 2 Boy Scouts MIKADO II...........................Troop No. 3 Boy Scouts SAMMY BOY..............................St. Andrew"s League AMERICAN EAGLE...................Sunday School a.s.sociation MANY EYES........................Winnebago Camp Fire Girls
"How graciously they put us at the end of the list," remarked Sahwah.
The Captain and Slim were there waiting for them and looked at Many Eyes critically, but they forebore to laugh at her. Sahwah felt as though she would explode if _they_ made fun of her. But they made no disparaging remarks, although they both felt dubious about the flying qualities of a kite in the shape of a Primitive Woman. However, they were game and promised to shout for her with all their might.
The Scout who had taken Sahwah"s entry that day under the tree came strolling over, curious to see what kind of a kite she had produced.
"Ho, ho!" he scoffed. "What kind of a kite do you call that? That"s nothing but a paper doll. That"s just the kind of a kite you"d expect a girl to make. Now when you"re making a kite, you want to make a _kite_, not a paper doll! And what did you go and paint that one eye on there for and nothing else, and then enter her as _Many Eyes_?"
Sahwah forbore to reply, and walked away, shielding her poor darling with her body against the curious stares and comments of the other contestants. Mr. Wing was sympathetic when he heard of the tragic fate of the original Many Eyes and did not laugh at her hopscotch successor, but the artist, who was with him, laughed uncontrollably, which hurt Sahwah"s feelings and increased the slight antagonism she already had toward him. So she walked away from him, too, and took her place with the contestants, who were forming in a line in the field. All around her she heard amused comments pa.s.sed upon the shape of No. 6 entry; everybody called it the "paper doll." In height and breadth it conformed to the prescribed measurements laid down by the rules of the contest, but it did look so odd for a kite to have a head and arms and legs! All the other entries were the regulation kite shape. Victory Bird and American Eagle had pictures of eagles with outstretched wings pasted upon them. The whistle blew and the kites were launched in air and immediately the sky was split with the shouts of the various rooters.
"VICTORY BIRD! VICTORY BIRD! VICTORY BIRD!"
"SAMMY BOY! SAMMY BOY! SAMMY BOY!"
"SKYSc.r.a.pER! SKYSc.r.a.pER! SKYSc.r.a.pER!"
In the midst of the din came the feebler, but stanch cheer of the Winnebagos. Nyoda noticed that Agony did not cheer for Many Eyes; she had slipped away from the Winnebagos and stood by herself a few paces off, trying to look like a disinterested spectator.
"She won"t cheer for Many Eyes because she"s ashamed of her and doesn"t want people to know she"s her entry!" was the painful thought that came into Nyoda"s mind.
The rest of the Winnebagos stood gamely together and shrieked for their entry at the tops of their voices. Slim and the Captain stood by them loyally and made as much racket as they could.
The ripple of amus.e.m.e.nt that had caused Agony so much chagrin when the "paper doll" began her flight soon changed to astonished applause, for Many Eyes won in a walk! Straight up she soared, "just like an angel,"