LIFE AND LOVE RETURN 267 



shore, I could hear Little Pine singing to his sweetheart. It 

 was charming. 



THE LOVE DANCE 



"My son," sighed Oo-koo-hoo, "it reminds me of the days 

 when I, too, was a boy and when Ojistoh was a girl, away back 

 among the many springs of long ago." 



"Yes, Nar-pim," smiled Granny — for an Indian woman 

 never calls her husband by his name, but always addresses him 

 as Nar-pim, which means "my man." 



"Yes, Nar-pim, don't you remember when I heard that 

 drumming away off among the trees, and when I, girl-like, 

 pretended I did not know what it meant, but you, saying never 

 a word and taking me by the hand, led me to the very spot 

 where that handsome little lover was beating his drum and 

 making love to so many sweethearts?" 



"Yes, I remember it well, when I took little Ojistoh, my 

 sweetheart, by the hand and we hurried to find the little drum- 

 mer." Then, turning to me, the hunter continued: "My son, 

 one never forgets the days of his youth, and well can I recall 

 picking our way in and out among the trees and undergrowth, 

 tiptoeing here and there lest our moccasined feet should break 

 a fallen twig and alarm the drummer or the dancers. For it 

 was the love dance we were going to see. As the drumming 

 sound increased in volume, our caution increased, too. Soon 

 we deemed it prudent to go down upon our hands and knees 

 and thus be more surely screened by the underbrush as we 

 stealthily approached. Creeping on toward the sound, slowly 

 and with infinite precaution, we discovered that we were not 

 the only ones going to the dance: the whirring of wings fre- 

 quently rustled overhead as ruffed grouse skimmed past us in 

 rapid flight. 



"Once, my son, we felt the wind from a hawk's wing swoop- 



