where the water was too swift to freeze, and
there he waited and watched for the Wolf to come out from under the
ice, crying and wailing and making an awful noise, for a man.

"Well--right there is where the thing happened. You see, Kingfisher
can't fish through the ice and he knows it, too; so he always finds
places like the one OLD-man found. He was there that day, sitting on
the limb of a birch-tree, watching for fishes, and when OLD-man came
near to Kingfisher's tree, crying like an old woman, it tickled the
Fisher so much that he laughed that queer, chattering laugh.

"OLD-man heard him and--Ho! but he was angry. He looked about to see
who was laughing at him and that made Kingfisher laugh again, longer
and louder than before. This time OLD-man saw him and SWOW! he threw
his war-club at Kingfisher; tried to kill the bird for laughing.
Kingfisher ducked so quickly that OLD-man's club just grazed the
feathers on his head, making them stand up straight.

"'There,' said OLD-man, 'I'll teach you to laugh at me when I'm sad.
Your feathers are standing up on the top of your head now and they will
stay that way, too. As long as you live you must wear a head-dress, to
pay for your laughing, and all your children must do the same.

"This was long, long ago, but the Kingfishers have not forgotten, and
they all wear war-bonnets, and always will as long as there are
Kingfishers.

"Now I will say good night, and when the sun sleeps again I will tell
you why the curlew's bill is so long and crooked. Ho!"

WHY THE CURLEW'S BILL IS LONG AND CROOKED

When we reached War Eagle's lodge we stopped near the door, for the old
fellow was singing--singing some old, sad song of younger days and
keeping time with his tom-tom. Somehow the music made me sad and not
until it had ceased, did we enter.

"How! How!"--he greeted us, with no trace of the sadness in his voice
that I detected in his song.

"You have come here to-night to learn why the Curlew's bill is so long
and crooked. I will tell you, as I promised, but first I must smoke."

In silence we waited until the pipe was laid aside, then War Eagle
began:

"By this time you know that OLD-man was not always wise, even if he did
make the world, and all that is on it. He often got into trouble but
something always happened to get him out of it. What I shall tell you
now will show you that it is not well to try to do things just because
others do them. They may