e drumming log, "can't you tell me a story?"

"Why, yes," said Father Mit-chee, "I suppose I might, I might tell you
the story of the first partridge."

Long, long ago an Indian was hunting in the woods. As he went along, he
heard a noise as of people jumping and dancing on hard ground. "That is
queer," said he to himself. "I will go and see what is going on."

So he turned his steps in the direction of the sound, and went on
through the forest swiftly but silently. Though at the first the noise
had seemed to come from a place near at hand, it was a long time before
he came in sight of the dancers. They were a man and a woman, and they
were jumping and dancing about a tree, in the top of which was Hes-puns
the Raccoon.

Now all three of them, the raccoon as well as the man and woman, were
magicians. The man and the woman were enemies to the other, and as their
magic was stronger than his, he had turned himself into a raccoon to
escape them.

[Illustration]

The hunter did not know this. He went toward them, and as he drew near,
he saw that the dancers had worn a ditch waist-deep about the tree.

He went up to them and asked them why they did this strange thing.

Now the man and the woman did not want the hunter to know the truth of
the matter. So they said, "We are trying to wear away the earth from the
root of this tree, so that we can get it down and catch Hes-puns, We are
hungry and we have no tomahawk."

"Well," said the hunter, "I have a good tomahawk and I will cut down the
tree for you. But you must give me the skin of Hes-puns."

They agreed to this, and the hunter soon brought the tree to the ground.
They caught the raccoon and killed and skinned him. Then they gave the
skin to the hunter, who went home.

A few days after this, the hunter saw a stranger coming toward his
lodge. On his head he wore a strange kind of cap which looked like a
small wigwam. When the hunter went out to meet him, the stranger took
off his cap and set it upon the ground. At once it grew larger and
larger until it became a beautiful lodge with several fine rooms in it.

The hunter was greatly amazed, but invited the stranger into his own
lodge and set food before him. While eating, the visitor chanced to see
the pelt of Hes-puns hanging on one of the lodge poles.

Now he was a magician and the brother of the one who had turned himself
into a raccoon. As soon as he saw the skin, he knew it by certain marks
to be the skin o