small canoe on the river; she can help to hoe the
young corn, and can find the wild bees' honey in the woods, gather the
scarlet fruit when it is fully ripe and falls from the trees, and help
her mother to pound the corn in the great wooden mortar. All this, and
much more, as you will see, Manenko can do; for every little girl on
the round world can help her mother, and do many useful things.

Would you like to know more of her,--how she looks, and where she
lives, and what she does all day and all night?

Here is a little round house, with low doorways, most like those of a
dog's house; you see we should have to stoop in going in. Look at the
round, pointed roof, made of the long rushes that grow by the river,
and braided together firmly with strips of mimosa-bark; fine, soft
grass is spread all over this roof to keep out the rain.

If you look on the roof of the house across the street you will see
that it is covered with strips of wood called shingles, which are laid
one over the edge of the other; and when it is a rainy day you can see
how the rain slips and slides off from these shingles, and runs and
drips away from the spout.

Now, on this little house where Manenko lives there are no shingles,
but the smooth, slippery grass is almost as good; and the rain slides
over it and drips away, hardly ever coming in to wet the people
inside, or the hard beds made of rushes, like the roof, and spread
upon the floor of earth.

In this house lives Manenko, with Maunka her mother, Sekomi her
father, and Zungo and Shobo her two brothers.

They are all very dark, darker than the brown baby. I believe you
would call them black, but they are not really quite so. Their lips
are thick, their noses broad, and instead of hair, their heads are
covered with wool, such as you might see on a black sheep. This wool
is braided and twisted into little knots and strings all over their
heads, and bound with bits of red string, or any gay-looking thread.
They think it looks beautiful, but I am afraid we should not agree
with them.

Now we will see what clothes they wear.

You remember Agoonack, who wore the white bear's-skin, because she
lived in the very cold country; and the little brown baby, who wore
nothing but a string of beads, because she lived in the warm country.
Manenko, too, lives in a warm country, and wears no clothes; but on
her arms and ankles are bracelets and anklets, with little bits of
copper and iron hanging to