XXXI 



EVEN A GRASS PLANT CAN BECOME 

 SOMEONE IF IT TRIES 



NEAR the mouth of the Yukon grows a tall, 

 slender kind of grass which the women gather and 

 dry in the fall and use for braiding mats and bas- 

 kets and for pads in the soles of skin boots. 



One of these grass stalks that had been almost 

 pulled out by the roots when the women were 

 gathering others, did not like the fate in store 

 for it. 



:< Why should I stay on in this shape and never 

 become anything but a pad in the sole of a boot 

 to be trodden on forever? It must be nicer to be 

 the one who treads on the pad; but since I cannot 

 be that, I will at least be something better than 

 grass." 



Looking about, it spied a bunch of herbs grow- 

 ing close by, looking so quiet and unmolested that 

 the grass stem said, " I will be an herb; that is a 

 higher and safer life than this." 



At once it was changed into an herb like those 

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