was
greatly surprised. Explanations were made, and the fraudulent wife was
soon turned into a caterpillar. Crawling off she has never since been
heard from, and may be crawling yet, as far as any of the villagers
know.

TUNGN[=A]LUKE'S PERPLEXITY

Tungn[=a]luke was one of those slow-of-comprehension, good-natured,
shiftless fellows, that the men of the world would consider as not
being very bright. He would rather hang around his neighbors doing a
bit of gossiping, than to exert himself by hunting for his family. As
usual with such characters, he had chosen for a wife a woman his
extreme opposite, and she was not to be blamed if, at times, she
exercised her fiery tongue or wielded a stick. It was the only way to
excite a little energy in the man she had accepted as her life partner.
There was a certain amount of affection existing between the two; she
looking upon him as a man she could control, while on his part, he
viewed her with a considerable amount of respect.

Knowing the man's gossiping disposition so well, she had ordered him to
go up the river alone for three or four weeks and lay in a winter's
supply of fish. He would much rather have taken a companion, for
spending three or four weeks alone fishing through the ice, with no one
to converse with, did not meet with his approbation; yet he knew better
than to raise any objections with Mrs. Tungn[=a]luke. So he obeyed and
went off. Feeling the loneliness of his position, he worked with an
unusual amount of energy, trying to hurry the task through. Still the
feeling of, "Oh, if I only had some one to talk to," would occasionally
steal over him.

One day, meeting with unusual success, he stayed at the task much later
than usual and the twilight had begun to fade. At last casting his eyes
toward his hut he was surprised to see the place brightly illuminated.
What could it mean? He knew that the seal-oil lamp had not been lighted
that day and there was no other person within many miles.

The number four seems to be regarded among the villagers with some
degree of superstition, though why it is hard to say. Perhaps it
originated from the idea that man ascends on the fourth day after
death, and the four raps with the hammer are given on that day at the
recent home of the deceased.

Tungn[=a]luke, on seeing the illumination, hastily picked up four
frozen fish and on entering the hut he was delighted to see a woman.
Here was somebody to talk to. To be sure, she