Timid Hare trudged bravely along beside her young mistress who led one
of the pack horses. She carried a big bundle on her back. So did
Sweet Grass and her mother. So did all the other squaws except those
who were too old and feeble.

"Let us move fast while we are fresh," Sweet Grass would say now and
then when Timid Hare began to lag. "When the day grows old, then is
the time to move like the turtle."

As they travelled along. Timid Hare passed The Stone who looked at her
with ugly eyes. The old squaw was thinking, "Had it not been for my
sending the girl that day to Sweet Grass she would now be making my
load light. Fool that I was!"

Afterwards Timid Hare and her mistress talked with The Fountain, the
pretty bride who lived near The Stone. The Fountain smiled pleasantly
at the little girl. She said, "Sometime, Timid Hare, you shall come to
see me in the new home. I may have a surprise for you."

The sun had nearly set when word came down the line: "The chief has
chosen a place for the new camp. It is beside a stream of clear water
and the tracks of buffaloes are not far distant."

Timid Hare was glad to hear the news, because her feet and back ached.
She was not strong as an Indian girl of her own age should be and she
knew it. "But I look like one," she said to herself. She was glad now
that her body was stained. She had colored it afresh of her own accord
just before the journey, for she felt she would not be jeered at by the
children of the Dahcotas so long as her hair and body were of the same
color as their own.

When the new camping ground was reached, she was very tired. "But I
must not show it," she thought. "I must be bright and cheerful." So
she moved quickly, helping to set up the tepee and get supper for the
family. But her eyelids closed the moment she lay down to rest, and
she knew nothing more till the barking of the dogs roused her the next
morning. At the same time she heard Sweet Grass and her mother talking
together.

"The Fountain was last seen when we stopped at a spring to get water in
the late afternoon," one of them was saying.

"I hope she is safe," replied the other, "and that the gray wolf was
not abroad."

Timid Hare shuddered. "Where can The Fountain be?" she wondered. "She
is so good and so pretty, I hope she is unharmed."

The very next moment a neighbor appeared in the door. "The Fountain
has just reached us," she said. "She spent the night by the sp