fancy, he
thought in pictures,--a picture of old Cheesto the Rabbit holding the
ball-sticks half hidden in the folds of his great fur robe and wading
out into the ice-cold water to restore them. And old Cheesto, he
reflected, was one of the cheera-taghe of Ioco, and could work a spell
quite as well as the Great Bear, who had gone to bed for the winter two
weeks ago, and had not heard of ball-sticks within the memory of
man,--perhaps not since he was a Cherokee himself, and playing with the
rest on the course at Tennessee Town.

In fact, old Cheesto, in common with many men not Cherokees, cared
little for the public weal when it interfered with private interest. But
he had not realized how much he had jeopardized the success of Ioco Town
in cutting the netting of the ball-sticks. He had imagined the
incompleteness of the racket would merely show Amoyah as incompetent,
render his play futile and ineffective, and discredit him with both
friend and foe. Never, however, had the play of any one man been so
important and conspicuous as his to-day when the bewitched ball-sticks
became the salient feature and the living tradition of the match between
Ioco and Niowee. For despite these points, thus lost by supernatural
agency to Niowee, the bewitchment of the ball-sticks only served to
illustrate the superior skill of the Ioco team, and to embellish their
victory.

Amoyah had nothing but his imagination to support his theory, but it
seemed singularly credible to Altsasti, to whom he rehearsed it, finding
her seated on the ground before the door of her winter house in great
dreariness of spirit, that he should in playing so well have won nothing
and merely jeopardized the game.

"I am afraid of that Great Bear," she declared, eying the ball-sticks
askance as he came up.

Then revealing his theory of the spell that old Cheesto had wrought upon
him in Tus-ka-sah's interest, Amoyah proposed a counter-spell which
would defeat Tus-ka-sah.

"But Cheesto can still send you trouble if you have a wife," she argued.

"Ah, no," the specious Amoyah replied. "Everybody knows that a man's
wife makes him all the trouble that he needs."

To save him from these woes devised by others Altsasti undertook to give
him all the trouble he needed. But he seemed quite cheerful in the
prospect, and as she cooked the supper within doors he sat at the
entrance, much at home, singing, "_Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah! Eeon-a,
Ha-hoo-jah!_"

Tus-ka-sah upbraide