IS MAGIC ARROW, IT FELL AT HIS FEET 240

HE WAS ONCE SEEN WITH SEVERAL DEER ABOUT HIM, PETTING
AND HANDLING THEM 247

FIRST EVENING

THE BUFFALO AND THE FIELD-MOUSE

WIGWAM EVENINGS

FIRST EVENING

The cold December moon is just showing above the tree-tops, pointing a
white finger here and there at the clustered teepees of the Sioux, while
opposite their winter camp on the lake shore a lonely, wooded island is
spread like a black buffalo robe between the white, snow-covered ice and
the dull gray sky.

All by itself at the further end of the village stands the teepee of
Smoky Day, the old story-teller, the school-master of the woods. The
paths that lead to this low brown wigwam are well beaten; deep, narrow
trails, like sheep paths, in the hard-frozen snow.

To-night a generous fire of logs gives both warmth and light inside the
teepee, and the old man is calmly filling his long, red pipe for the
smoke of meditation, when the voices and foot-steps of several children
are distinctly heard through the stillness of the winter night.

The door-flap is raised, and the nine-year-old Tanagela, the
Humming-bird, slips in first, with her roguish black eyes and her shy
smile.

"Grandmother, we have come to hear a story," she murmurs. "I have
brought you a sun-dried buffalo-tongue, grandmother!"

[Illustration: SMOKY DAY TELLING TALES OF OLD DAYS AROUND HIS FIRE.

_Page 5_]

One by one the little people of the village follow her, and all seat
themselves on the ground about the central fire until the circle is well
filled. Then the old man lays down his pipe, clears his throat once or
twice and begins in a serious voice:

"These old stories for which you ask teach us the way of life, my
grandchildren. The Great-Grandfather of all made us all; therefore we
are brothers.

"In many of the stories the people have a common language, which now the
Great Mystery has taken away from us, and has put a barrier between us
and them, so that we can no longer converse together and understand the
speech of the animal people.

"Observe, further, that silence is greater than speech. This is why we
honor the animals, who are more silent than man, and we reverence the
trees and rocks, where the Great Mystery lives undisturbed, in a peace
that is never broken.

"Let no one ask a question until the story is finished."

THE BUFFALO AND T