CHOOSING THE KING 13 



and then when you come up to him, he s just 

 a great starved Cat, with less brains than a 

 Tadpole.&quot; 



Carcajou suddenly reared on his hind quarters 

 and let fly the stone with his short, strong, right 

 arm at the Bird. &quot; Evil Chatterer ! &quot; he ex 

 claimed angrily, &quot; you are always making mis 

 chief.&quot; 



Jack hopped nimbly to one side, cocked his 

 saucy silvered head downward, and piped : &quot; Pro 

 ceed with the meeting ; the Prince of all Mis 

 chief-makers, Carcajou, the Devil of the Woods, 

 lectures us on morality.&quot; 



&quot; Yes, let us proceed with the discussion,&quot; 

 commanded Black Fox. 



&quot; Brothers,&quot; said the Moose, in a voice that 

 was strangely plaintive, coming from such a big, 

 deep throat, &quot; I am satisfied with Black Fox for 

 King ; but if anything were to happen requiring 

 us to choose another, one of almost equal wis 

 dom, I should like to nominate Beaver. We 

 know that when the world was destroyed by the 

 great flood, and there was nothing but water, that 

 Umisk took a little mud, made it into a ball with 

 his handy tail, and the ball grew, and they built 

 it up until it became dry land again. Wiesahke- 

 chack has told us all about that. I have travelled 

 from the Athabasca across Peace River, and up 



