THE LEGEND OF OPECHEE 61 



tricks to please her ; while even the Bad One 

 crept silent and abashed from her path. So 

 the old women wagged their heads again and said, 

 'She is like her mother and not of us, some night 

 sho will vanish, before she is grown a woman.' 



" Of all living things, she loved the birds the 

 boat, and among them we came first, and next to 

 us the Bluebirds. In the Moon of Leaves we 

 both flocked near her, as she pulled the blossoms 

 from the wild plum trees, or sought the pink and 

 white Miskodeed (the flower you call spring 

 beauty) in the meadow. 



" In Moon of Strawberries we followed her 

 through all the woods as she made flower-gar- 

 lands and, giving them messages to her vanished 

 mother, threw them in the swift river. 



" In Moon of Falling Leaves, when the women 

 ground samp, pounding it in a rock-bowl hollowed 

 on the cliff, we would surround her, lest unawares 

 she moved too near the edge. 



"Early one summer, trouble entered Kaniwa's 

 heart. At noon, when he used to go abroad, the 

 old warrior sat at home, counting the notches 

 of his time-stick, an anxious look upon his 

 face." 



" Please, what is a ' time-stick ? ' " asked Tommy- 

 Anne. 



