^"ewS] ficiion 225 



cliild. " Well, we will let you off this time, but you shall suffer if you 

 lie agaiii to us." 



In the evening when the old uncle came home, he inquired what he 

 had been doing. " Have you found a brother ? " he asked. " I have 

 no brother, have I ? " asked the little boy. '" Was not there anj'one here 

 to-day i " queried the uncle. " No," said the lad. " Well, what did 

 those women come for ? I heard them," said the uncle. " There was 

 no one here," said the child. The uncle said no more. 



The next morning, when going off" to hunt, the uncle said, " You 

 would better go out of doors to play, instead of turning everything 

 upside down in the lodge: go out of doors to play." His uncle had 

 scarcely disappeared when the boy ran to his brother, begging him 

 to come out, until at last he did so. Again they amused themselves; 

 but in the midst of the dancing the elder brother heard two of the 

 women coming. " Now," said hef " I must go ; there is no use to hide 

 or to deny that I am here. I must go." Presently the two women 

 arrived in their canoe, which, grazing the top of the lodge, came to 

 the ground. The elder brother got into the canoe, and away they went 

 to the west. 



AVhen the uncle came home at night he was bowed down with 

 grief, for he knew what had happened. He sat down, crying bitterly. 

 "Oh! do not cry so, uncle," said his little nephew; "do not cry; I 

 will go and bring him back." Running out quickly, he gathered a 

 lot of red-willow twigs, from which he scraped the bark. On throw- 

 ing this into the fire straightway a thick column of smoke rose and 

 shot off toward the west. Jumping into the smoke, the boy was 

 borne away after his brother. He overtook the canoe when it was 

 about halfway to its destination in the west. The youth in the canoe 

 knew that his little brother was following to rescue him. One of the 

 women was sitting in the bow of the canoe paddling, while the other 

 .sat in the stern steering. The yoimg man turned to look at his little 

 brother, whereupon one of the women in the canoe struck him on the 

 side of the head with the paddle, crying out : " Sit still ! do not look 

 around." As she struck him he turned his head slightly, so as to 

 look again; he saw that his brother, on noticing the blow, sprang 

 forward and jumped into the canoe, shouting: "Do not strike my 

 brother." Then he cried : " Let this boat turn around and take my 

 brother home." Tnstantly the canoe, turning around in spite of all 

 that the women could do. sailed back faster than it had come. 



As they were nearing the uncle's lodge the women begged the 



little boy to let his brother go with them, saymg: "We will give 



you whatever you wish, only let him go." He thought of what he 



might ask in payment for letting his brother go again. Then the 



94615°— 18 15 



