and pounced upon the badger. "Be
gone!" said he, and with his big hind foot he sent father badger
sprawling on the ground.

All the little ruffian bears hooted and shouted "ha-ha!" to see the
beggar fall upon his face. There was one, however, who did not even
smile. He was the youngest cub. His fur coat was not as black and glossy
as those his elders wore. The hair was dry and dingy. It looked much
more like kinky wool. He was the ugly cub. Poor little baby bear! he had
always been laughed at by his older brothers. He could not help being
himself. He could not change the differences between himself and his
brothers. Thus again, though the rest laughed aloud at the badger's
fall, he did not see the joke. His face was long and earnest. In his
heart he was sad to see the badgers crying and starving. In his breast
spread a burning desire to share his food with them.

"I shall not ask my father for meat to give away. He would say 'No!'
Then my brothers would laugh at me," said the ugly baby bear to himself.

In an instant, as if his good intention had passed from him, he was
singing happily and skipping around his father at work. Singing in his
small high voice and dragging his feet in long strides after him, as if
a prankish spirit oozed out from his heels, he strayed off through the
tall grass. He was ambling toward the small round hut. When directly in
front of the entrance way, he made a quick side kick with his left hind
leg. Lo! there fell into the badger's hut a piece of fresh meat. It
was tough meat, full of sinews, yet it was the only piece he could take
without his father's notice.

Thus having given meat to the hungry badgers, the ugly baby bear ran
quickly away to his father again.

On the following day the father badger came back once more. He stood
watching the big bear cutting thin slices of meat.

"Give--" he began, when the bear turning upon him with a growl, thrust
him cruelly aside. The badger fell on his hands. He fell where the grass
was wet with the blood of the newly carved buffalo. His keen starving
eyes caught sight of a little red clot lying bright upon the green.
Looking fearfully toward the bear and seeing his head was turned away,
he snatched up the small thick blood. Underneath his girdled blanket he
hid it in his hand.

On his return to his family, he said within himself: "I'll pray the
Great Spirit to bless it." Thus he built a small round lodge. Sprinkling
water upon the heated heap