ood near enough to overhear the conversation, grinned
from ear to ear when he caught this remark. The Manitoes answered:

"Oh yes, we will be easy with you."

And as they said this they looked at each other, and rolled their eyes
about in a dreadful manner. A hideous smile came over their faces as
they whispered among themselves:

"It's a pity he's so thin. You go," they said to the eldest brother.

The two got ready--the Manito and Grasshopper--and they were soon
clinched in each other's arms for a deadly throw. Grasshopper knew their
object--his death; they wanted a taste of his delicate little body, and
he was determined they should have it, perhaps in a different sense from
that they intended.

"Haw! haw!" they cried, and soon the dust and dry leaves flew about as
if driven by a strong wind. The Manito was strong, but Grasshopper
thought he could master him; and all at once giving him a sly trip, as
the wicked spirit was trying to finish his breakfast with a piece out of
his shoulder, he sent the Manito head-foremost against a stone; and,
calling aloud to the three others, he bade them come and take the body
away.

The brothers now stepped forth in quick succession, but Grasshopper
having got his blood up, and limbered himself by exercise, soon
dispatched the three--sending one this way, another that, and the third
straight up into the air, so high that he never came down again.

It was time for the old Manito to be frightened, and dreadfully
frightened he got, and ran for his life, which was the very worst thing
he could have done; for Grasshopper, of all his gifts of strength, was
most noted for his speed of foot. The old Manito set off, and for mere
sport's sake, Grasshopper pursued him. Sometimes he was before the
wicked old spirit, sometimes he was flying over his head, and then he
would keep along at a steady trot just at his heels, till he had blown
all the breath out of the old knave's body.

Meantime his friend, the pipe-bearer, and the twenty young warriors,
cried out:

"Ha, ha, ah! ha, ha, ah! Grasshopper is driving him before him!"

The Manito only turned his head now and then to look back. At length,
when he was tired of the sport, to be rid of him, Grasshopper, with a
gentle application of his foot, sent the wicked old Manito whirling away
through the air, in which he made a great number of the most curious
turn-overs in the world, till he came to alight, when it so happened
that he fell as