George Bird Grinnell, author of _When Buffalo Ran_,

Charles A. Eastman, author of _Indian Boyhood_,

Lewis Spence, author of _The Myths of the North American Indians_.

Grateful acknowledgment is made, also, of valuable information found in
the _Thirty-Second Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_.

DAVID CORY

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I WILD GEESE 13

II PLANS AND PELTS 20

III LOADING THE CANOES 28

IV JEALOUS SLOW DOG 34

V HAWK EYE'S OFFERING 40

VI THE BEAR 47

VII THE KILL 51

VIII THE PELT IS REMOVED 57

IX THE RAPIDS 61

X THE BEAVER DAM 67

XI TOEPRINTS IN THE SAND 76

XII ACROSS THE PRAIRIE 83

XIII THE BOYS ARE TAKEN PRISONERS 89

XIV HAWK EYE'S REVENGE 96

XV TWO GOOD SHOTS 102

XVI OHITIKA IS WOUNDED 108

XVII THE TRADING POST 113

XVIII JOURNEY'S END 120

HAWK EYE

CHAPTER I

WILD GEESE

Slow Dog, Medicine Man, looked out of his lodge. Wild geese were honking
overhead. To the Indian it meant the return of spring.

"I must be the first to kill one," muttered Slow Dog. Entering his
lodge, he presently came out with bow and arrows. Hastening toward a
bend in the river which formed a sheltered cove, he hid among a clump of
willow bushes and waited in the hope that the birds might come down to
feed.

Slow Dog was not the only one to notice the geese, however. Two boys,
one about fifteen years of age, the other, close to thirteen, had also
heard the honking.

"Get your bow and arrows," cried Hawk Eye, the elder, darting into his
tepee. The younger boy, Raven Wing, ran to his lodge for his weapons. In
a few minutes both were hurrying to the river.

"There's Slow Dog hiding in the bushes," whispered Raven Wing. "He
wishes to be the first to bring one to earth."

"Leave him there," answered Hawk Eye, noticing that the flock, headed by
an old gander, had slightly altered its course. "The geese are making
for the lake." Breaking into a run, the boys headed for Big Stone Lake,
from whose southern