n, 'even now I hear my man
calling me, far away.' Daimeka, beside himself, beat her across the
head with all his force. She put up a hand. 'Children, even now I
felt his hand caressing me. Surely I have not long to live.'

"'I was better off under the tree,' said Daimeka to himself, and
strode forth from the lodge. By the shore he launched one of the
canoes; and now he felt no wish in his heart but to return to the
battlefield and sit there dead, if only he could find his body again
which he had left--as he now felt sure--sitting beneath the tree.

"On the fourth day he reached the battlefield. Night was falling,
and as he sought the tree he came on a blazing fire. Across it he
could see the tree plainly, and at the foot of it his body with the
light on its face.

"He stepped aside to walk round the fire; but it moved as he moved,
and again stood in his path. A score of times he tried to slip by
it, but always it barred his way, and always beyond it stood the
tree, with his own face fronting him across the blaze.

"'Fire, I am a fool,' said he at the last; 'but, fire, thou art a
worse fool to think that Daimeka would turn his back!' And so saying
he strode straight through its flame. At once he found himself
seated with his back to the tree in his dress of war, with his bow
resting against his shoulder. 'Now I am dead,' said he, contentedly;
nevertheless he began to finger his bow. 'On what do the dead feed
themselves?' he wondered; and, for a trial, fixed and shot an arrow
at a passing bird: for above the tree there was clear sky, though
darkness lay around its foot and in the darkness the fire still
burned. The bird fell; he plucked it, cooked it at the fire, and
ate.

"'In life I never ate better partridge,' said Daimeka, `but now that
I am a real ghost I will return once more to Michilimackinac and
frighten my wife out of her senses, for she deserves it.'

"So when the fire died down he arose, warm in all his limbs, and
started northward again. On the fourth day he found his canoe where
he had left it, and pushed off for the island. But, as he neared the
shore, a man who had been standing there ran back to the village, and
soon all his folk came running down to the beach, his wife in their
midst.

"'Daimeka!' they cried. 'It is indeed Daimeka returned to us!'

"'That may be,' said Daimeka, as his wife flung her arms around him;
'and again, it may not be. But, dead or alive, I find it good