At length the region of the Missouri was visited by one of those great
storms which so often scatter desolation over it, and the river,
overflowed by the melted currents of snow and ice from the regions of
the mountains, swept away every thing from its banks, and among other
things the drowsy snail. Seated upon a log, and enjoying greatly a
circumstance which gave him all the pleasure of travel without its
fatigue, our lazy ancestor drifted down many a day's journey, till the
torrent, subsiding, left him and his log upon the bank of the River of
Fish. He mow found himself in a strange country, but there was plenty of
slime, both on ground and leaf, and there was no occasion for rapid
motion; then what cared he? It was in the middle of the season of hot
suns, which beamed fiercely upon him, till he became baked in the slime
to the earth, and found himself as incapable of moving as the clod upon
which he dwelt. Gradually he grew in size and stature, and his form
experienced a change, till at length what was once a snail, creeping
upon all-fours on the earth, ripened into man, erect, tall, and stately,
strong of limb, rugged of purpose, and formed to overcome by either
strength or cunning, every thing which dwelt on the earth, or in the
air, or in the water. For a long time after his change from a beast to a
human being, he remained stupified, not knowing what he was, where he
was, or by what means to sustain life. At length recollection returned
to him: he remembered that he was once a snail, and dwelt upon another
river--he remembered where that river lay. He now became animated with a
wish to return to his old haunts, and accordingly directed his steps
towards that part of the great island[A] from which he had been removed.
Hunger now began to prey upon him, and bade fair to close his eyes
before he should again behold his beloved haunts on the banks of the
Osage. The beasts of the forest were many, but their speed outstripped
his; he could not catch them: the birds of the air fluttered upon sprays
beyond his reach; the fish, gliding through the waves at his feet, were
nimbler than he, and eluded his grasp. Each moment be grew weaker, the
films gathered before his eyes, and in his ears there rang sounds like
the whistling of winds through the woods in the month before the snows.
At length, wearied and exhausted, he had laid himself down upon a grassy
bank to die.

[Footnote A: The Indians always speak of the earth as a