n^^l^] FICTION 185 



added the youth. "Oh, no! I have a rule that when one of my 

 nephews comes I play a game. I run a race on the ice, and who- 

 ever gets beaten to the end loses his head. No matter how he gets 

 there; only let him get there first, he \\ins." Just as he was ready 

 to start, the young man. taking a ball off an oak tree, said, "Let 

 there come a high wind I '' He got into the ball (which grows on 

 the oak tree at a certain time of the .year) and in a moment he was 

 over the ice. The old man was scarcely half\yay across. The young 

 man then pulled out of his pouch a white flint. As he threw it 

 toward the middle of the pond, he said, " Let this stone melt the 

 ice and boil the water.'" In an in.stant the old man was sinking 

 in boiling water and cried for mercy, but the young man said, " No I " 

 As the water boiled it melted all the ice; thereupon then the water 

 disai)peared. dry land appeared, and the old man was left in the 

 middle of it, a great stone monument. After setting fire to the 

 cabin the young man went home. He had never forgotten his father 

 and sister, and he knew where they were. 



One day a runner came to the lodge of the two sisters, announcing, 

 " I have been sent by the chief to give notice of the marriage of a 

 certain woman. The chief wishes all to come." Knowing that the 

 boy had orenda (magic powers), the sisters were careful of him. 

 When he said. " I want to go to the gathering," they raised many 

 objections, saying. '"Bad people will be there; all sorts of games 

 will be played." They were afraid to let him go. He replied: 

 " You were afraid to have me go toward the setting sun. I have 

 been there. I have destroyed the dice man,°* the ball man, and the 

 ice-pond man." The sisters were greotly astonished. The youth 

 added. "Now. I am going to the gathering. My mother, father, 

 sister, and dog are there." Yielding at last, they told him how 

 to find his grandmother, and said that she would tell him what 

 to do. 



He set out: after traveling a long way he struck another trail; 

 then he began to meet many people, and as they journeyed the crowd 

 kept increasing. When night came they all camped together and 

 were very hungry. Going out, the v'outh killed game, which he 

 told the men to bring in; this the women prepared. The next day 

 all went on. The sisters had said to him before starting: "There 

 will be one woman in the crowd who will seem to have power over 

 all men. Do not notice her." He saw the woman, for the men 

 all crowded around her. and one after another she satisfied all their 

 desires. He looked at her but pas.'^ed on. 



At last he reached the place where his grandmothei' lived. She 

 was very poor. He said, " Grandmother, I have come." " Poor 

 grandchild. I am sorry. I have so little to give. I am alone and 

 poor," murmured the grandmother. " Oh I do not mind; we shall 



