voice of Morning
Star well! Surely she could distinguish his call among the others!
Therefore she listened yet more intently, and looked skyward as her
light canoe glided gently up stream.

"Ah, poor Winona! She saw only six sandhill cranes, looking no larger
than mosquitoes, as they flew in circles high up in the sky, going east
where all spirits go. Something said to her: 'Those are the spirits
of some of the Sioux braves, and Morning Star is among them!' Her eye
followed the birds as they traveled in a chain of circles.

"Suddenly she glanced downward. 'What is this?' she screamed in despair.
It was Morning Star's body, floating down the river; his quiver, worked
by her own hands and now dyed with his blood, lay upon the surface of
the water.

"'Ah, Great Mystery! why do you punish a poor girl so? Let me go with
the spirit of Morning Star!'

"It was evening. The pale moon arose in the east and the stars were
bright. At this very hour the news of the disaster was brought home by
a returning scout, and the village was plunged in grief, but Winona's
spirit had flown away. No one ever saw her again.

"This is enough for to-day, my boy. You may come again to-morrow."

II. The Stone Boy

"Ho, mita koda!" (welcome, friend!) was Smoky Day's greeting, as I
entered his lodge on the third day. "I hope you did not dream of a
watery combat with the Ojibways, after the history I repeated to you
yesterday," the old sage continued, with a complaisant smile playing
upon his face.

"No," I said, meekly, "but, on the other hand, I have wished that the
sun might travel a little faster, so that I could come for another
story."

"Well, this time I will tell you one of the kind we call myths or fairy
stories. They are about men and women who do wonderful things--things
that ordinary people cannot do at all. Sometimes they are not exactly
human beings, for they partake of the nature of men and beasts, or of
men and gods. I tell you this beforehand, so that you may not ask any
questions, or be puzzled by the inconsistency of the actors in these old
stories.

"Once there were ten brothers who lived with their only sister, a young
maiden of sixteen summers. She was very skilful at her embroidery, and
her brothers all had beautifully worked quivers and bows embossed with
porcupine quills. They loved and were kind to her, and the maiden in
her turn loved her brothers dearly, and was content with her position as
their houseke