and was
very swift. His hair was whipping the trees as they went by. Water
poured down his face. I stood bent forward because I could not
straighten my back-bone, and was ready to fall when they again
disappeared.

"When they came out for the third time it seemed as if the woods and the
meadow were moving too. Tamedokah skipped across the opening as if he
were a grasshopper learning to hop. I fell down.

"When I came to he was putting water on my face and head, but when I
looked at him I fell again, and did not know anything until the sun had
passed the mid-sky.

"The company was kept roaring all the way through this account, while
Tamedokah himself heartily joined in the mirth.

"Ho, ho, ho!" they said; "he has made his name famous in our annals.
This will be told of him henceforth."

"It reminds me of Chadozee's bear story," said one.

"His was more thrilling, because it was really dangerous," interposed
another.

"You can tell it to us, Bobdoo," remarked a third.

The man thus addressed made no immediate reply. He was smoking
contentedly. At last he silently returned the pipe to Matogee, with whom
it had begun its rounds. Deliberately he tightened his robe around him,
saying as he did so:

"Ho (Yes). I was with him. It was by a very little that he saved his
life. I will tell you how it happened.

"I was hunting with these two men, Nageedah and Chadozee. We came to
some wild cherry bushes. I began to eat of the fruit when I saw a large
silver-tip crawling toward us. 'Look out! there is a grizzly here,' I
shouted, and I ran my pony out on to the prairie; but the others had
already dismounted.

"Nageedah had just time to jump upon his pony and get out of the way,
but the bear seized hold of his robe and pulled it off. Chadozee
stood upon the verge of a steep bank, below which there ran a deep and
swift-flowing stream. The bear rushed upon him so suddenly that when he
took a step backward, they both fell into the creek together. It was a
fall of about twice the height of a man."

"Did they go out of sight?" some one inquired.

"Yes, both fell headlong. In his excitement Chadozee laid hold of the
bear in the water, and I never saw a bear try so hard to get away from a
man as this one did."

"Ha, ha, ha! ha, ha, ha!" they all laughed.

"When they came to the surface again they were both so eager to get to
the shore that each let go, and they swam as quickly as they could to
opposite sides. Chadozee cou