m how he played
with the blanket, which he did so adroitly as to set his father
laughing, and at last drive him out of the lodge with the great clouds
of ashes that he raised.

The next morning the boy renewed his request that his father should be
absent all day, and see if he could not kill two deer. The hunter
thought this a strange desire on the part of his son, but as he had
always humored the boy, he went into the forest as usual, bent on
accomplishing his wish, if he could.

As soon as he was out of sight, his son hastened to his young companion
at the tree, and they continued their sports.

The father on nearing his home in the evening, as he reached the rising
ground, again heard the sounds of play and laughter; and as the wind
brought them straight to his ear, he was now certain that there were two
voices.

The boy from the tree had no more than time to escape, when the hunter
entered, and found his son, sitting as usual, near the fire. When he
cast his eyes around, he saw that the lodge was in greater confusion
than before. "My son," he said, "you must be very foolish when alone to
play so. But, tell me, my son; I heard two voices, I am sure;" and he
looked closely on the prints of the footsteps in the ashes. "True," he
continued, "here is the print of a foot which is smaller than my son's;"
and he was now satisfied that his suspicions were well founded, and that
some very young person had been the companion of his son.

The boy could not now refuse to tell his father what had happened.

"Father," he said, "I found a boy in the hollow of that tree, near the
lodge, where you placed my mother's bones."

Strange thoughts came over the mind of the hunter; did his wife live
again in this beautiful child?

Fearful of disturbing the dead, he did not dare to visit the place where
he had deposited her remains.

He, however, engaged his son to entice the boy to a dead tree, by the
edge of a wood, where they could kill many flying-squirrels by setting
it on fire. He said that he would conceal himself near by, and take the
boy.

The next day the hunter accordingly went into the woods, and his son,
calling the boy from the tree, urged him to go with him to kill the
squirrels. The boy objected that his father was near, but he was at
length prevailed on to go, and after they had fired the tree, and while
they were busy killing or taking the squirrels, the hunter suddenly made
his appearance, and clasped the stra