ch of it, for he
did not put his arrow mark on its leaves. Still the Cows think it is
good, the Bees think it is fine, and it always carried lots of food bags
in its cellar. So also does the next sister--Melilot, the Yellow Clover
or Honey-lotus--and the last and sweetest of them all, is the Sweet
Clover that spreads sweet smells in the old-fashioned garden.

TALE 21

The Indian Basket-maker

[Illustration: The Indian Basket]

"Come, little Nagami, my Bird-Singer, you are ten years old, it is time
you learned to make baskets. I made my first when I was but eight,"
said Mother Akoko proudly, for she was the best basket-maker on the
river.

So they took a sharp stick, and went into the woods. Akoko looked for
spruce trees that had been blown down by the storm, but found none, so
she stopped under some standing spruce, at a place with no underbrush
and said: "See, Nagami, here we dig for wattap."

The spruce roots or "wattap" were near the surface and easily found, but
not easily got out, because they were long, tangled and criss-crossed.
Yet, by pulling up, and cutting under, they soon got a bundle of roots
like cords, and of different lengths, from two feet to a yard, or more.

"Good," said Akoko; "this is enough and we need not soak them, for it is
summer, and the sap is running. If it were fall we should have to boil
them. Now you must scrape them clear of the brown bark." So Nagami took
her knife and worked for an hour, then came with the bundle saying:
"See, Mother, they are smooth, and so white that they have not a brown
spot left." "Good," said Akoko, "now you need some bark of the willow
for sewing cord. Let us look along the river bank."

There they found the round-leafed, or fish-net willow, and stripped off
enough of its strong bark to make a bundle as big as one hand could
hold.

This also had to be scraped clear of the brown skin, leaving only the
strong whitish inner bark, which, when split into strips, was good for
sewing.

"See, my Nagami, when I was a little girl I had only a bone needle made
from the leg of a deer, but you have easy work; here is a big steel
packing needle, which I bought for you from a trader. This is how you
make your basket."

So Akoko began a flat coil with the spruce roots, and sewed it together
with the willow bark for thread, until it was a span wide. And whenever
a new root was to be added, she cut both old piece and new, to a long
point, so they would overlap wi