28 FOREST FANCIES 



more in their winter white, and Old Nokomis, 

 the earth-mother, wore ermine on her blanket 

 as her moccasins fell softly on the carpet of 

 eiderdown, leaving no mark — though the rab- 

 bits left their fanlike footprints and the squir- 

 rels their tiny tracks. 



^^Nokomis," cried a voice from the maple 

 tree, *'when in mid-March the father comes 

 tapping the trees, the children follow. Give 

 me hands to touch and feet to run, eyes to see 

 and lips to laugh, and loose me from the bonds 

 of the maple tree — for the children are sweet, 

 sweeter than the maple sap I" 



Old Nokomis, gazing at the tree's shaggy 

 bark, long past the smoothness of youth, re- 

 plied, ** Daughter, you are a child in spirit, 

 though your maple tree has grown old. Yet, 

 old as is your maple tree, only I remember the 

 days before the Pale Face brought his snow- 

 white sugar and his golden honeybee ; only I 

 remember how the Red Man slanted his cut in 

 the maple's side, gathered the sweet water in 

 vessels of bark or clay, and dropped in the 

 heated stones. The tribes had a festival or 



