A TBEASUBY OF ESKIMO TALES 



it had envied, and for a time it remained in peace. 

 But one day the women came back with baskets 

 and picks and began to dig up these herbs and eat 

 some of the roots, putting others into the baskets 

 to take home. The changed plant was left stand- 

 ing when the women went home toward evening, 

 but it had seen the fate of its companions. 



" This is not very safe either, for now I should 

 be eaten. I wish I had chosen some other form," 

 it said. 



Looking down, it saw a tiny, creeping vine 

 clinging close to the ground. " That is the thing 

 to be," it said. " That is so obscure and lowly 

 that the women will never notice it. I will be a 

 vine like that." 



Without delay it became a little squawberry 

 vine nestling under the dead leaves. It had not 

 lived in peace and seclusion very long before the 

 women came and tore up many of the vines, stop- 

 ping just before they reached the changeling, and 

 saying, " We will come back to-morrow and get 

 the rest." 



The one-time grass plant was filled with fear, 

 and changed itself quickly into a small tuber- 

 bearing plant like some that were growing near. 

 Scarcely had the change been made when a small 

 tundra mouse came softly through the grass and 



128 



