, and to make ready
their wigwam. For many years they lived peacefully and happily in this
sheltered place, never leaving it except to hunt the wild animals,
which served them both for food and clothes. At last, however, the
strong man felt sick, and before long he knew he must die.

So he gathered his family round him, and said his last words to them.
'You, my wife, the companion of my days, will follow me ere many moons
have waned to the island of the blest. But for you, O my children,
whose lives are but newly begun, the wickedness, unkindness, and
ingratitude from which I fled are before you. Yet I shall go hence in
peace, my children, if you will promise always to love each other, and
never to forsake your youngest brother.'

'Never!' they replied, holding out their hands. And the hunter died
content.

Scarcely eight moons had passed when, just as he had said, the wife
went forth, and followed her husband; but before leaving her children
she bade the two elder ones think of their promise never to forsake
the younger, for he was a child, and weak. And while the snow lay
thick upon the ground, they tended him and cherished him; but when the
earth showed green again, the heart of the young man stirred within
him, and he longed to see the wigwams of the village where his
father's youth was spent.

[Footnote 18: A North American Indian Story.]

Therefore he opened all his heart to his sister, who answered: 'My
brother, I understand your longing for our fellow-men, whom here we
cannot see. But remember our father's words. Shall we not seek our own
pleasures, and forget the little one?'

But he would not listen, and, making no reply, he took his bow and
arrows and left the hut. The snows fell and melted, yet he never
returned; and at last the heart of the girl grew cold and hard, and
her little boy became a burden in her eyes, till one day she spoke
thus to him: 'See, there is food for many days to come. Stay here
within the shelter of the hut. I go to seek our brother, and when I
have found him I shall return hither.'

[Illustration: 'My Brother, My Brother, I Am Becoming a Wolf!']

But when, after hard journeying, she reached the village where her
brother dwelt, and saw that he had a wife and was happy, and when she,
too, was sought by a young brave, then she also forgot the boy alone
in the forest, and thought only of her husband.

Now as soon as the little boy had eaten all the food which his sister
had le