Harper saw his wife’s enthusiastic expression and whispered, "Dear, would you like to go and see?"
Martha nodded. Since getting married, she hadn’t seen a play for many years—they previously wanted to watch a play, they had to travel over a hundred miles to the nearest town. They could not afford the travel expenses, and the ticket price was astronomical for them.
"I wonder how much the ticket costs." Harper looked around, "I remember that native saying it was free to watch from the ’periphery’."
"It’s indigenous." The voice of a girl came from above them, speaking English, "The term ’native’ isn’t very polite."
Harper looked up to see an Indian girl sitting in a tree and quickly bowed to apologize, "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend..."
"It’s okay." The girl pointed to a ladder leaning against the tree, "If you’re concerned about the ticket price, you can come up here to watch. It’s just a bit far, and the lines might be unclear."
Harper then noticed that the trees around the "theater" were filled with people, mostly children.
He hesitated for a moment and asked, "So, how much are the tickets?"
"6 Dannies."
Harper blinked, then heard his wife whisper in his ear, "Less than 3 cents."
He was a bit tempted; he could afford 3 cents.
But Martha didn’t wait for him to make a decision and had already climbed the ladder, sitting next to the Indian girl, then waved at him, "It’s very clear from here, dear, come up quickly."
Ten minutes later, "The Count of Monte Cristo" officially began.
Although the actors were speaking French, that kind-hearted Indian girl occasionally helped translate a few lines, and the Harper couple barely understood the plot.
As night fell, the final scene ended.
Martha looked at the actors taking their bows at the front, her eyes brimming with tears.
It truly was a great drama, worthy of the award-winning piece from the European Drama Festival. She never expected to see it in an Indian village.
She suddenly thought, if there were theaters in Tennessee villages, perhaps she would have hesitated longer before deciding to go to the West Coast.
That night, she almost didn’t sleep, excitedly discussing the plot of "The Count of Monte Cristo" with Harper.
The church bell interrupted Martha, and she only then realized that it was already dawn.
The gold seeker in the same room opened the door, and a group of Indian children chased a ball woven from vines, noisily running past.
Harper saw the woman delivering food coming over and curiously pointed at the children to inquire, "Excuse me, what are they doing?"
"Playing soccer." The woman knew they weren’t buying food, so she appeared less enthusiastic.
Martha exclaimed, "You play soccer here too?"
She had seen in the newspapers that soccer was the most popular sport in Europe, and there was a "World Cup" soccer match where winners could earn over tens of thousands of US dollars in prize money.
Now, wealthy people in the United States were also very keen on it. She just didn’t expect that Indian children in Louisiana would also play soccer.
The Indian woman glanced at the children, "There are Masses this morning, so they don’t have to work in the fields. Normally, they’re not so idle."
"Mass?"
The Indian woman had already walked to the next wooden hut, casually pointing at the church, "Don’t you believe in Jesus? Today is Sunday."
Martha was taken aback. It was indeed a bit awkward that an Indian would question her belief in Jesus...
A strange thought suddenly arose in her mind.
These Indians, whom the American government labeled as savage and uncivilized, could watch wonderful dramas in their village, play soccer, and piously participate in Mass on Sunday.
If this is uncivilized, then what would she be? A monkey?
Hmm, she remembered she hadn’t participated in Sunday worship for nearly half a year.
Most residents in Tennessee were followers of the New Protestant Baptism Church, whose Sunday worship corresponded to the Catholic Mass.
Before long, the Indian children playing soccer were taken away by their parents to the village church.
Martha had a simple breakfast here since there wasn’t much else to do and pulled her husband along to the church. She was just curious about what the Indian Mass looked like, not endorsing a heretical religious ceremony.
In the neatly built church, a French priest loudly recited the "Indian Gospel" in the Indian language.
Fortunately, the Harper couple couldn’t understand it, or they would have been shocked by the content.
When it was the Holy Communion part, Martha could no longer remain calm—
The Holy Communion here involved first smoking and then drinking a strange beverage. Harper said it was tea, but Martha was skeptical because tea leaves were expensive.
Finally, they ate corn cakes.
At this point, Martha regained a bit of her feeling of superiority in civilization. At least her Holy Communion was more authentic than the Indian’s.
After Mass ended, the priest pointed solemnly to the notice on the church wall, saying something and repeating it in the Indian language.
Martha went closer to look at the notice but only understood some words like "farming," "explaining," etc.
Just then Charlotte approached too—the girl who invited her to the tree to watch the drama yesterday—so she pointed at the notice and asked the girl, "What’s it saying?"
The girl’s French wasn’t very good either; she was from the Creek Tribe and learned English in elementary school, only starting to learn French after coming to Louisiana.
She looked for a while, feeling a bit frustrated, "In short, the Empire sent technicians to teach everyone to use some powerful tools in the afternoon."
Martha knew she meant France when she said Empire, and she became even more curious.
Generally, the suzerain nations only took care of taxes from the colonies; the French actually sent technicians to Indian villages?
Unbeknownst to her, even the performing troupe coming here was subsidized by the colonial government; otherwise, how could the ticket be so cheap?
It’s worth knowing that just the traveling expense in the vast and sparsely populated Louisiana was not a small number.
But Joseph demanded that the colonial finances be allocated to support the troupe, newspapers, teams, and churches every year. Only such connections in the spiritual aspect could form a united whole among the whites and Indians in Louisiana.
At half past three that afternoon, the Martha couple quietly came to the open space on the east side of the mill.
She found out from Charlotte that the agricultural technicians would give explanations here.
It was a small wheat field that had just been harvested, yet to be replanted.
Two French technicians stood on large wooden boxes, surrounded by hundreds of Indians.
Initially, Martha and Harper felt somewhat apprehensive until Charlotte saw them and gestured for them to come closer, letting them know that these things allowed outsiders to watch.
A French technician first advertised the French Agricultural Consulting Company and then, together with his assistant, took out a machine from the box with an oak body and a lower end with a row of iron teeth grooves.