ht his last hour had come; but the
Manito bade him to be of good cheer.

When the night came on the clouds were thick and black, and as they were
torn open by the lightning, such discharges of thunder were never heard
as bellowed forth. The clouds advanced slowly and wrapped the earth
about with their vast shadows as in a huge cloak. All night long the
clouds gathered, and the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared, and
above all could be heard Manabozho muttering vengeance upon poor little
Grasshopper.

"You have led a very foolish kind of life, Grasshopper," said his friend
the Manito.

"I know it--I know it!" Grasshopper answered.

"You had great gifts of strength awarded to you," said the Manito.

"I am aware of it," replied Grasshopper.

"Instead of employing it for useful purposes, and for the good of your
fellow-creatures, you have done nothing since you became a man but raise
whirlwinds on the highways, leap over trees, break whatever you met in
pieces, and perform a thousand idle pranks."

Grasshopper, with great penitence, confessed that his friend the Manito
spoke but too truly; and at last his entertainer, with a still more
serious manner, said:

"Grasshopper, you still have your gift of strength. Dedicate it to the
good of mankind. Lay all of these wanton and vain-glorious notions out
of your head. In a word, be as good as you are strong."

"I will," answered Grasshopper. "My heart is changed; I see the error of
my ways."

Black and stormy as it had been all night, when morning came the sun was
shining, the air was soft and sweet as the summer down and the blown
rose; and afar off upon the side of a mountain sat Manabozho, his head
upon his knees, languid and cast down in spirit. His power was gone, for
now Grasshopper was in the right, and he could touch him no more.

With many thanks, Grasshopper left the good Manito, taking the nearest
way home to his own people.

As he passed on, he fell in with an old man who was wandering about the
country in search of some place which he could not find. As soon as he
learned his difficulty, Grasshopper, placing the old man upon his back,
hurried away, and in a short hour's dispatch of foot set him down among
his own kindred, of whom he had been in quest.

Loosing no time, Grasshopper next came to an open plain, where a small
number of men stood at bay, and on the very point of being borne down
by great odds, in a force of armed warriors, fierce of