ld
eyes, sporting in the water around them.

After a while the children began to clamor for a story, but Mary would not
speak a word. Sagastao suspected the cause of Mary's unusual silence.

"What is the use, sakehou," he protested, "of your being in a pet because
baby was not named Papewpenases? The name they gave her pleased everybody
else; you must be pleased too."

"If you are cross and won't speak to us we will go and run away to
Souwanas; won't we?" said Minnehaha.

This was too much for Mary, and she quickly surrendered and made an excuse
about thinking of some beautiful story to tell them when they should land
on that little rocky island just ahead of them.

"Very well," said Sagastao, "let us have the one about how medicines were
discovered and given to the Indians to cure diseases."

"Just the one I was thinking about," said Mary; "and while we rest on the
lovely white sand I will tell you the story."

A few vigorous strokes of the paddle sent the canoe well up on the sandy
shore, and soon they all landed. A good romp relieved them of the stiffness
caused by the cramped position in the canoe. Then as they cuddled down in
the warm sand Mary began her story.

"You remember, little sweethearts, how the animals of various kinds held
councils and decided to be revenged on the human family for their cruelty
by sending diseases among them. Well, these creatures did as they said they
would and the result was that lots of men died, and also the women and
children, that did the creatures no harm, were getting different kinds of
sicknesses and many of them were dying.

"Were there no diseases among them before these times?" inquired Minnehaha.

"No; not what you might call diseases," replied Mary. "The people lived
such simple lives that, with the exception of accident, such as being
drowned in great storms or killed by falling trees, or something that way,
nearly all the people died of old age."

"Then they had no doctors in those days?" asked Sagastao.

"No; there were no medicine men in those times. Although there were those
skillful to set broken limbs or attend to any who happened to be
accidentally wounded, but that was nearly all. Then all at once these
diseases sent by the angry animals began to appear among them, and, of
course, there was much alarm. The people did not know what had brought
them, nor how to get rid of them. Many people were sick and numbers of them
died.

"You see, the animals hel