f^l?i] FICTION 189 



That day the boy, going to the Long Lodge ns before, found the 

 old woman sitting there, mute and motionless, as if nothing had 

 haf)i)ened in the meantime. He asked the other boy, " What has 

 your mother done with your father? " " Oh ! you will never see him 

 again. She will come for you tomorrow morning. I do not know 

 what she has done with my father, but she went off with him and 

 came back without him," declared the boy. 



The nephew of tiie man went home to preijare for the coming of 

 the woman. He had a mole for his guardian. He got inside of th.^ 

 mole, which, instructed by him, went down into the ground under 

 the lodge as deep as he could. The next moining the woman came 

 ;igain with terrible fury, raging worse than before. She uprooted 

 all the trees in her path, but she could not tind the nephew, so she 

 had to go awa,y without him. 



Soon afterward the nephew went again to the Long Lodge. There 

 sat the woman, motionless eis before. " Oh ! " said the small boy. 

 •'she went for you this morning, but could not find you. Where 

 were you ? " " I was right there."' replied the nephew of the man. 



Then the nephew went home. The next morning at daybreak ;i 

 similar tempest came; but the boy was down in the ground, inside 

 the mole, so that the woman could not find him. Thereupon, making 

 herself into a great whirlwind, and digging a deep hole in the 

 ground, she lifted the earth to the sky, carrying the mole along in 

 tiie dirt. The mole fell, but escaped, while the boy was killed. The 

 old woman went home well satisfied. 



The mole went immediately to work, however, and by blowing the 

 bi-eath into the boy's mouth and withdrawing it lirought him back 

 to life. 



After that the nephew set out to find where his uncle was, going 

 northward. He went beyond the Long Lodge, traveling as fast as 

 he could all day and night :md carrying the mole with him. The 

 next morning at daybreak the witch again came after him in a 

 terrible tempest. Once more getting into the mole, he went into the 

 ground, where she coidd not find him, so she went home to the Long 

 Lodge. He traveled the second day as fast as he could. On the 

 third morning the woman came still again in a roaring tenyiest. 

 Finding that the nephew was in the mole, she made once more a 

 whirlwind, which scooped up the earth, leaving a great hole, and 

 carried him in the dirt far up into the clouds. The mole falling to 

 the earth, the boy was killed. The witch went 'lome satisfied. The 

 mole, by again working over the dead nephew, brought him back to 

 life. Whereupon the latter, putting the mole into his belt, ran on 

 as fast as he could all the third day. That night he spent deep 

 down in the great rocks of a mountain. 



