happened to want a little boy, so she threw her
ball in the direction of the hunters' huts. A child was standing
outside, shooting at a mark with his bow and arrows, but the moment
he saw the ball, which was made of glass whose blues and greens and
whites, all frosted over, kept changing one into the other, he flung
down his bow, and stooped to pick the ball up. But as he did so it
began to roll very gently downhill. The boy could not let it roll
away, when it was so close to him, so he gave chase. The ball seemed
always within his grasp, yet he could never catch it; it went quicker
and quicker, and the boy grew more and more excited. That time he
almost touched it--no, he missed it by a hair's breadth! Now, surely,
if he gave a spring he could get in front of it! He sprang forward,
tripped and fell, and found himself in the witch's house!

'Welcome! welcome! grandson!' said she; 'get up and rest yourself, for
you have had a long walk, and I am sure you must be tired!' So the boy
sat down, and ate some food which she gave him in a bowl. It was quite
different from anything he had tasted before, and he thought it was
delicious. When he had eaten up every bit, the witch asked him if he
had ever fasted.

'No,' replied the boy, 'at least I have been obliged to sometimes, but
never if there was any food to be had.'

'You will have to fast if you want the spirits to make you strong and
wise, and the sooner you begin the better.'

'Very well,' said the boy, 'what do I do first?'

'Lie down on those buffalo skins by the door of the hut,' answered
she; and the boy lay down, and the squirrels and little bears and the
birds came and talked to him.

At the end of ten days the old woman came to him with a bowl of the
same food that he had eaten before.

'Get up, my grandson, you have fasted long enough. Have the good
spirits visited you, and granted you the strength and wisdom that you
desire?'

'Some of them have come, and have given me a portion of both,'
answered the boy, 'but many have stayed away from me.'

'Then,' said she, 'you must fast ten days more.'

So the boy lay down again on the buffalo skins, and fasted for ten
days, and at the end of that time he turned his face to the wall, and
fasted for twenty days longer. At length the witch called to him, and
said:

'Come and eat something, my grandson.' At the sound of her voice the
boy got up and ate the food she gave him. When he had finished every
scrap she s