people were glad to see the woman, whom they had mourned as dead.
She told them of the wonderful things she had learned in her new home.
She told them also how Heno was freeing their land of a monster serpent,
that trailed underneath the earth, poisoning their springs and causing
sickness. Always, she said, Heno carried a basket of great rocks on his
back, which he hurled at the monster whenever he saw him. Soon he would
kill the serpent, and they would be sick no more.

During many days, the mother and the little boy stayed with the earth
people. Sometimes, when the child was playing by the river, he would see
a dark cloud approaching. Then he would clap his hands with joy and cry,
"There comes my father!"

The black cloud would float earthward, and Heno would stop and have a
word with the mother and the boy. As he left them he always said, "Do
not let anyone strike the boy."

But one day, the mother did not watch the boy, and he fell to playing
with some earth children. They grew angry as they played, and struck the
boy. Instantly these earth children fell dead to the ground. Then the
mother laid hands on the boy, to punish him, and he fell to earth.

At this, there came a great rumbling and roaring through the sky, and
Heno appeared. He took the lifeless child in his arms, crying, "You have
disobeyed. No longer shall you have this great power I gave you. You
shall remain on earth and be simply an earth woman. I will take the boy
to my abode. Henceforth, our lodge shall be in the sky. There he will
return to life, and ever after he will go with me on my journeys through
the sky."

Then the sky shook and trembled. The door of the sky lodge opened, and
Heno and the boy were seen no more.

Now, when a rumbling and rolling through the sky is heard, the Indians
say, "'Tis the voice of Heno! He is coming from his lodge in the sky!"

But when a flash of fire is seen, and a loud crash is heard, they say,
"That is the boy! He is trying to hit the earth children with a fire
stone. He remembers how they struck him, a long time ago."

[Illustration]

WHY THE HARE HAS A SPLIT LIP AND SHORT TAIL

Once a rabbit began to run back and forth through the woods, calling for
snow, snow, snow! It was one of those large gray rabbits, with long
ears, that people call hares.

As this hare ran back and forth through the woods, he sang at the top of
his voice, "_Ah gon ne yah--yeh! Ah gon ne yah-yeh! Ah gon ne yah--yeh!
da