HOW THE GRASS GREW. 19 



fought their great battle, arid where they fight the 

 grass is blasted, the bushes shrivel, and even the 

 great oaks themselves bud forth but grudgingly." 



"Who are Kabibonokka and Shawondasee, and 

 what is the Moon of Snow-Shoes? " asked Tommy- 

 Anne, with deep interest. 



44 Pardon me," said the Grass-blade, politely ; "I 

 forgot that in our language we still have some 

 names and words that the House People do not 

 use. We learned them from the Red Brothers, 

 the first men who lived with us here, and they 

 understood our secrets, speaking our speech until 

 our language mixed itself with theirs and theirs 

 with ours, and we remember a word from this 

 tribe, another from that. Moon of Snow-Shoes 

 means November, and was in those days the 

 beginning of the season you call winter. Then 

 the deep snows coming early cover everything, 

 so that none could go abroad unless on snow 

 shoes, whose wide, flat, latticed soles slid safely 

 on the crust, and in this way the Red Brothers 

 followed the Fox and Rabbit trails in - 



Here Waddles raised his head, uttered n i 

 of bays that could be heard for miles, < 

 about the great Oak, head down, as if he was iiu.. 

 then threw himself on the grass, rolling and whin- 

 ing petulantly. 



