take the
sticks out." The bull repeated, "First take the sticks out of my head, then
I will take you across." This made the old woman very mad, and she hit him
with the stick she had in her hand; but when she saw that he would not go,
she began to pull the sticks out of his head very roughly, tearing out
great handfuls of hair, and every moment ordering him to go, and
threatening what she would do to him when she got back. At last the bull
took her on his back, and began to swim across with her, but he did not
swim fast enough to please her, so she began to pound him with her club to
make him go faster; and when the bull got to the middle of the river, he
rolled over on his side, and the old woman slipped off, and was carried
down the river and drowned.

The girl followed the trail of the camp for several days, feeding on
berries and roots that she dug; and at last one night after dark she
overtook the camp. She went into the lodge of an old woman, who was camped
off at one side, and the old woman pitied her and gave her some food, and
told her where her father's lodge was. The girl went to it, but when she
went in, her parents would not receive her. She had tried to overtake them
for the sake of her little brother, who was growing thin and weak because
he had not nursed; and now her mother was afraid to have her stay with
them. She even went and told the chief that her children had come back. Now
when the chief heard that these two children had come back, he was angry;
and he ordered that the next day they should be tied to a post in the camp,
and that the people should move on and leave them here. "Then," he said,
"they cannot follow us."

The old woman who had pitied the children, when she heard what the chief
had ordered, made up a bundle of dried meat, and hid it in the grass near
the camp. Then she called her dog to her,--a little curly dog. She said to
the dog:--

"Now listen. To-morrow when we are ready to start, I will call you to come
to me, but you must pay no attention to what I say. Run off, and pretend to
be chasing squirrels. I will try to catch you, and if I do so, I will
pretend to whip you; but do not follow me. Stay behind, and when the camp
has passed out of sight, chew off the strings that bind those children; and
when you have done this, show them where I have hidden that food. Then you
can follow the camp and catch up to us." The dog stood before the old
woman, and listened to all that she said