Wise Esteban by Phantom11 (2B)

In Walk the World’s Rim, by Betty Baker, Esteban is a courageous black man who is a slave to one of the Spaniards. Although he is a slave, I think he is the wisest character in the book. For example, when the tribe called the “tea drinkers” accused the Indian boy named Chakoh of poisoning their tea, Esteban drank the tea to prove that it was not poisoned. He pretended that he wasn’t sick, even though he really was, in order to save Chakoah’s life. Another time, Esteban ran into some fierce and scary-looking Indians called the Buffalo Hunters. The group wanted to rest in their village, so Esteban pretended that he had been bitten by a rattlesnake so that they could stay there and rest. Later, in order to become friends with them, he spontaneously thought of a pantomime, of a man being chased by a buffalo, that they thought was so humorous, they called it a gift of laughter. So I will always remember him as a wise and clever man.