168 "TALES OF READY-TO-GIVE. 
she came back she brought some flag roots with tops on them, and some 
peppermints with their roots and tops. These she took to the hole and 
planted at the bottom of it. The next day she went to the hole and it 
had water in it. She told her mother to take a little wooden bowl, and 
to dip water from the hole and wash her face and head every day with 
that water. ‘‘I am to sit upon that pool,” she said, ‘“‘when I am not 
doing anything.’’ The mother took the wooden bowl and dipped some 
water. She smelled of the water and it smelled sweet. She washed 
the girl’s face and wet her hair with it. As she grew the girl became 
very pretty. Her hair was long, extending down to her knees. Every 
day her head and face were washed from the pool, and she sat upon it 
every day. She had dreams, and in her dreams a voice spoke to her and 
told her what to do. One day she went to the ponds, and when she came 
back she had a stick, about three feet long, with a hook at the end. She 
also had some long, dried, rawhide carrying-strings, with a head-band 
which was decorated very prettily. 
One day the girls in the village went after wood and this girl went 
with them. The girls thought she was very pretty. They asked what 
her name was and she told them her name was Young-Duck. When 
they went far into the woods, she stopped at a dry cottonwood tree and 
told the girls to go and get their wood. There were about six or seven 
girls. They went and picked their wood, and while they were gone the 
girl lifted her stick and said: ‘‘Now grow long; stretch up to that dry 
limb and pull it down for me.”” The stick reached the limb. When 
she had pulled down enough to make a load, she trimmed the limbs and 
tied them up with her strings. She would then sit down and wait for 
the girls. 
When the girls came they were surprised to see her wood all tied up. 
They went home together and the girl threw her wood all down near the 
entrance of their tipi and untied it. She then tied up her strings, then 
hung the stick and strings in the lodge. Her mother then went to get 
the bowl, dipped some water from the pool, and washed the girl’s face 
and head. The girl then went to her pool and sat on it. The mother 
filled the little bowl with pemmican, which she had prepared for her 
daughter. This she ate very slowly. She did not talk very much. 
After the girls had parted with Young-Duck, they talked about her 
and all agreed that she should lead them. Every day the girls came to 
her tipi and said: ‘‘Young-Duck, let us go after wood.” ‘‘Nawa,” 
she would say; then she would reach for her stick and strings. As she 
came out the girls would fall in line and she would lead them into the 
timber. Every time she came to a cottonwood tree she would stop and 
tell the girls to go on and gather their wood and take no notice of her. 
a, 
