180 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



on two other men, and the thing that had dogged 

 him turned and vanished, and they could find 

 no footprints on the snow. 



More often the story would be nothing but a 

 story, perhaps about birds or beasts. Once I 

 heard a Kootenai tell such a story; but he said 

 he had heard it very far north, and that it was 

 not a Kootenai story. It explained why the 

 loon has small wings and why the partridges 

 in the north turn white in winter. 



It happened very long ago. In those days 

 there was no winter and the loon had ordinary 

 wings and flew around like a raven. One mid- 

 day the partridges were having tea on a sand- 

 point in a lake where there were small willows 

 and blueberry bushes. The loon wished to 

 take tea with them, but they crowed and 

 chuckled and they would not let him. So he 

 began to call in a very loud voice a long call, 

 almost hke the baying of a wolf; you can hear 

 it now on the lakes. He called and he called, 

 longer and louder. He was calling the spirit who 

 dwells in the north, so far that no man has ever 

 known where it is. The spirit was asleep. But 

 the loon's medicine was very strong and he 

 called until the spirit woke up. The spirit sent 

 the North Wind down — he was the North 

 Wind — and the snow came, and summer passed 



