the skirts of the lodge. He heard the early women
going to their work in the fields. The young leaves were on the oaks,
and it was corn-planting time. Even very old corn, however, tastes very
good prepared in any number of different ways. Andramark agreed with
himself that when he gave himself in marriage it would be to a woman who
was a thoroughly good cook. But quite raw food is acceptable at times.
It is pleasant to crack quail eggs between the teeth, or to rip the roe
out of a fresh-caught shad with your forefinger and just let it melt in
your mouth.

The light brightened. It was a fine day. It grew warm in the lodge, hot,
intolerably hot. The skins of which it was made exhaled a smoky, meaty
smell. Andramark was tempted to see if he couldn't suck a little
nourishment out of them. A shadow lapped the skirts of the lodge and
crawled upward. It became cool, cold. The boy, almost naked, began to
shiver and shake. He swung his arms as cab-drivers do, and tried very
hard to meditate upon the art of being a man.

During the second night one of his former companions crept up to the
lodge and spoke to him under its skirts. "Sst! Heh! What does it feel
like to be a man?"--chuckled and withdrew.

Andramark said to himself the Indian for "I'll lay for that boy." He was
very angry. He had been gratuitously insulted in the midst of his new
dignities.

Suddenly the flaps of the lodge were opened and some one leaned in and
set something upon the floor. Andramark did not move. His nostrils
dilated, and he said to himself, "Venison--broiled to the second."

In the morning he saw that there was not only venison, but a bowl of
water, and a soft bearskin upon which he might stretch himself and
sleep. His lips curled with a great scorn. And he remained standing and
aloof from the temptations. And meditated upon the privileges of being a
man.

About noon he began to have visitors. At first they were vague, dark
spots that hopped and ziddied in the overheated air. But these became,
with careful looking, all sorts of devils and evil spirits, and beasts
the like of which were not in the experience of any living man. There
were creatures made like men, only that they were covered with long,
silky hair and had cry-baby faces and long tails. And there was a vague,
yellowish beast, very terrible, something like a huge cat, only that it
had curling tusks like a very big wild pig. And there were other things
that looked like men, only tha