and her smile
pleasant to see. He had given her a piece of the liver, a man's piece,
and a wonderful treat for a girl to get; but as she took it the other
woman with the necklace had looked at her, an evil glance, and Ugh-lomi
had made a noise in his throat. At that, Uya had looked at him long and
steadfastly, and Ugh-lomi's face had fallen. And then Uya had looked at
her. She was frightened and she had stolen away, while the feeding was
still going on, and Uya was busy with the marrow of a bone. Afterwards
he had wandered about as if looking for her. And now she crouched among
the alders, wondering mightily what Uya might be doing with the flint
and the bone. And Ugh-lomi was not to be seen.

Presently a squirrel came leaping through the alders, and she lay so
quiet the little man was within six feet of her before he saw her.
Whereupon he dashed up a stem in a hurry and began to chatter and scold
her. "What are you doing here," he asked, "away from the other men
beasts?" "Peace," said Eudena, but he only chattered more, and then she
began to break off the little black cones to throw at him. He dodged and
defied her, and she grew excited and rose up to throw better, and then
she saw Uya coming down the knoll. He had seen the movement of her pale
arm amidst the thicket--he was very keen-eyed.

At that she forgot the squirrel and set off through the alders and reeds
as fast as she could go. She did not care where she went so long as she
escaped Uya. She splashed nearly knee-deep through a swampy place, and
saw in front of her a slope of ferns--growing more slender and green as
they passed up out of the light into the shade of the young chestnuts.
She was soon amidst the trees--she was very fleet of foot, and she ran
on and on until the forest was old and the vales great, and the vines
about their stems where the light came were thick as young trees, and
the ropes of ivy stout and tight. On she went, and she doubled and
doubled again, and then at last lay down amidst some ferns in a hollow
place near a thicket, and listened with her heart beating in her ears.

She heard footsteps presently rustling among the dead leaves, far off,
and they died away and everything was still again, except the
scandalising of the midges--for the evening was drawing on--and the
incessant whisper of the leaves. She laughed silently to think the
cunning Uya should go by her. She was not frightened. Sometimes, playing
with the other girls and