-necks, you ungainly creatures, come and help me
over this river!" she cried.

The two Cranes again stood beak to beak, but when the wicked grandmother
had crossed half way they pulled in their necks and into the water she
went, screaming out threats and abuse as she whirled through the air.
The current swept her quickly away and she was drowned, for there is no
magic so strong that it will prevail against true love.

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING

THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE STAR

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING

"Ah, here is our little Humming-bird, always the first to raise the
door-flap!" is the old teacher's pleasant greeting.

"That is because I do not want to lose one word of your good stories,
Grandfather," murmurs the little maiden, with her pretty, upward glance
and bashful smile.

"I have one for you to-night that ought to please you," he answers
thoughtfully. "You know the shining Star people in the heavens above
us--you have gazed upon them and doubtless dreamed that you were among
them. We believe them to be a higher race than ours. Listen, then, to my
story."

THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE STAR

There were once two sisters who lived alone in an uninhabited place.
This was a long time ago, when the tribes upon earth were few, and the
animal people were friendly to man. The name of one of the girls was
Earth, and the other was called Water.

All their food was brought to them by their animal friends. The Bears
supplied them with nuts, berries and wild turnips, and the Bees brought
combs dripping with honey. They ate no flesh, for that would be to take
life. They dwelt in a lodge made of birch-bark, and their beds were mats
woven of rushes.

One clear, summer night the girls lay awake upon their beds, looking up
through the smoke-hole of their wigwam and telling one another all their
thoughts.

"Sister," said the Earth, "I have seen a handsome young man in my
dreams, and it seemed to me that he came from up yonder!"

"I too have seen a man in my dreams," replied her sister, "and he was a
great brave."

"Do you not think these bright stars above us are the sky men of whom we
have dreamed?" suggested the Earth.

"If that is true, sister, and it may be true," said the Water, "I choose
that brightest Star for my husband!"

"And I," declared her sister, "choose for my husband that little
twinkling Star!"

By and by the sisters slept; and when they awoke, they found themselves
in the sky! The husband o