good cause.

"It is a bear," said Tayoga, "and he has a lair in the windrow, not more
than twenty feet away. He has been out very late at night, too late for a
good, honest home-keeping bear, but he is back at last, and he smells us."

"And alarmed by the odor he does not know whether to enter his home or not.
Well, I hope he'll conclude to take his rest. We eat bear at times,
Tayoga, but just now I wouldn't dream of harming one."

"Nor would I, Dagaeoga, and maybe the bear will divine that we are
harmless, that is, Tododaho or Areskoui will tell him in some way of which
we know nothing that his home is his own to be entered without fear."

"I think I hear him moving now, and also puffing a little."

"You hear aright, Dagaeoga. Tododaho has whispered to him, even as I said,
and he is going into his den which I know is snug and warm, in the very
thickest part of the windrow. Now he is lying down in it with the logs and
branches about him, and soon he will be asleep, dreaming happy dreams of
tender roots and wild honey with no stings of bees to torment him."

"You grow quite poetical, Tayoga."

"Although foes are hunting us, I feel the spirit of the forest and of peace
strong upon me, Dagaeoga. Moreover, Tododaho, as I told you, has whispered
to the animals that we are not to be feared tonight. Hark to the tiny
rustling just beyond the log against which we lie!"

"Yes, I hear it, and what do you make of it, Tayoga?"

"Rabbits seeking their nests. They, too, have snuffed about, noticing the
man odor, which man himself cannot detect, and once they started away in
alarm, but now they are reassured, and they have settled themselves down to
sleep in comfort and security."

"Tayoga, you talk well and fluently, but as I have told you before, you
talk out of a dictionary."

"But as I learned my English out of a dictionary I cannot talk otherwise.
That is why my language is always so much superior to yours, Dagaeoga."

"I'll let it be as you claim it, you boaster, but what noise is that now? I
seem to hear the light sound of hoofs."

The Onondaga raised himself to his full height and peered over the dense
masses of trunks and boughs, his keen eyes cutting the thick dusk. Then he
sank back, and, when he replied, his voice showed distinct pleasure.

"Two deer have come into a little open space, around which the arms of the
windrow stretch nearly all the way, and they have crouched there, where
they will rest, indiffere