title: A Child on the  Island: The Ageless Wisdom of a Ten-Year-Old
author:  Tevon Dubois 
description: "These are lucid gems from a new astonishing mind. Think of these poems as....light reflected from the future..." -- <i>Paul Hawken, Author</i>
zlib_text: **CHAPTER 17**  
  ![](flin_0345484606_oeb_003_r1.jpg)
  
  JUNE 28, 1814
  
  _Oothcaloga_
  
  "Of course we had to bring our sister with us," James Rogers said firmly. "She
  needs a better education than she can get with the Moravians."
  
  He shot Sam a sly look. "She'd have been furious with us if we hadn't, seeing
  as how she insists that you're her future husband. But how can she manage that
  --you being a fancy officer now--if she doesn't get a proper American
  education?"
  
  Sam rolled his eyes.
  
  Tiana was the half sister of the Rogers brothers. He'd met her during the
  three years he'd lived with John Jolly and his people on their island in the
  Tennessee River. When he'd first arrived, Tiana had been ten years old and
  more or less oblivious to the sixteen-year-old white boy who'd dropped into
  their midst. By the time he'd left, however, she'd been thirteen and he'd been
  nineteen--and Cherokee girls married young. On the day he left, she'd publicly
  announced that she'd have him for a husband, when th