I

A wild mother’s patterned fancy--white beads, green and blue, With here, like heart-stained arrows, scarlet zigzagged through, Thy lining furry rabbit, little shoe!

How joyously she wrought thee, the long blue sunny day, On the wind-stroked grass of the prairie, ’neath the willows’ shady sway, Singing the old song mothers sing alway:

Chaske, my little Chaske, Chaske my brave to be! Fleet shall he run as the stallion, stand tall as the tall pine tree, As the storm be mighty and valiant--Chaske, my chief to be!

Stringing the beads in patterns, zigzag red and blue; Sewing with thread of tendon the furry edges true; Singing the song of mothers the blue day through.