er on the head and killed her.

[Illustration: THE WITCH OUTSTRIPS THE WOLF]

For a long while Ball-Carrier was content to stay quietly at home with
his wife and children, for he was tired of adventures, and only did
enough hunting to supply the house with food. But one day he happened
to eat some poisonous berries that he had found in the forest, and
grew so ill that he felt he was going to die.

'When I am dead do not bury me in the earth,' he said, 'but put me
over there, among that clump of trees.' So his wife and her three
children watched by him as long as he was alive, and after he was dead
they took him up and laid the body on a platform of stakes which they
had prepared in the grove. And as they returned weeping to the hut
they caught a glimpse of the ball rolling away down the path back to
the old grandmother. One of the sons sprang forward to stop it, for
Ball-Carrier had often told them the tale of how it had helped him to
cross the river, but it was too quick for him, and they had to content
themselves with the war club and bow and arrows, which were put
carefully away.

By-and-by some travellers came past, and the chief among them asked
leave to marry Ball-Carrier's daughter. The mother said she must have
a little time to think over it, as her daughter was still very young;
so it was settled that the man should go away for a month with his
friends, and then come back to see if the girl was willing.

Now ever since Ball-Carrier's death the family had been very poor, and
often could not get enough to eat. One morning the girl, who had had
no supper and no breakfast, wandered off to look for cranberries, and
though she was quite near home was astonished at noticing a large hut,
which certainly had not been there when last she had come that way.
No one was about, so she ventured to peep in, and her surprise was
increased at seeing, heaped up in one corner, a quantity of food of
all sorts, while a little robin redbreast stood perched on a beam
looking down upon her.

'It is my father, I am sure,' she cried; and the bird piped in answer.

From that day, whenever they wanted food they went to the hut, and
though the robin could not speak, he would hop on their shoulders and
let them feed him with the food they knew he liked best.

When the man came back he found the girl looking so much prettier and
fatter than when he had left her, that he insisted that they should be
married on the spot. And the moth