Still Water was as attentive to Beckwourth as any new bride could be. She made his meals and sewed his clothes. Every day she combed his long hair with bear grease, fascinated by its curls, so different from her own straight hair. She told him what a great warrior he was while she combed and asked him about the ways of the white man. Beckwourth quite enjoyed her tender touch, and it was with some effort that he kept a stoic aloofness. After his hair had been attended to, he proceeded through the snowy village to the sweat lodge and spent the day with men. At night, Still Water made her bed a respectful distance from Beckwourth, as his aloofness told her to do.
His dour mood lifted. Beckwourth told himself that he could still head home in the spring, modestly wealthy from the pelts he coul
