away home with him. As they went, he reflected in
this manner: "What will become of me? My ghost or shadow will not die
after they get me to their lodges."

Invitations were immediately sent out for a grand feast; but as soon as
his body got cold, his soul being uncomfortable in a house without heat,
flew off.

Having reassumed his mortal shape, Grasshopper found himself standing
near a prairie. After walking a distance, he saw a herd of elk feeding.
He admired their apparent ease and enjoyment of life, and thought there
could be nothing more pleasant than the liberty of running about and
feeding on the prairies. He had been a water animal and now he wished to
become a land animal, to learn what passed in an elk's head as he roved
about. He asked them if they could not turn him into one of themselves.

"Yes," they answered, after a pause. "Get down on your hands and feet."

He obeyed their directions, and forthwith found himself to be an elk.

"I want big horns, big feet," said he; "I wish to be very large;" for
all the conceit and vain-glory had not been knocked out of Grasshopper,
even by the sturdy thwacks of the hunters' clubs.

"Yes, yes," they answered. "There," exerting their power, "are you big
enough?"

"That will do," he replied; for, looking into a lake hard by,
Grasshopper saw that he was very large. They spent their time in grazing
and running to and fro; but what astonished Grasshopper, although he
often lifted up his head and directed his eyes that way, he could never
see the stars, which he had so admired as a human being.

Being rather cold, one day, Grasshopper went into a thick wood for
shelter, whither he was followed by most of the herd. They had not been
long there when some elks from behind passed the others like a strong
wind, calling out:

"The hunters are after us!"

All took the alarm, and off they ran, Grasshopper with the rest.

"Keep out on the plains," they said. But it was too late to profit by
this advice, for they had already got entangled in the thick woods.
Grasshopper soon scented the hunters, who were closely following his
trail for they had left all the others and were making after him in
full cry. He jumped furiously, dashed through the underwood, and broke
down whole groves of saplings in his flight. But this only made it the
harder for him to get on, such a huge and lusty elk was he by his own
request.

Presently, as he dashed past an open space, he felt an arrow