hem, and loved him more than any other of the wild folk, and
to this day no Indian boy will injure a chipmunk."

[Illustration]

XVII. LITTLE LUKE AND MEE-KO THE RED SQUIRREL

One day as little Luke was sitting on a fallen log in the woods, Mee-ko
the Red Squirrel ran out on a branch over his head. There he sat up on
his hind legs and began to chatter and scold and cough.

He remembered the day when the little boy had stoned him away from the
nest of O-pee-chee the Robin. Ever since that time he had never missed
a chance of saying bad words at him. But the little boy didn't mind
Mee-ko's scolding; he only laughed at him for his bad temper and
spitefulness.

"Mee-ko," said he, "what makes you cough so? Tell me. I think there must
be a story about it."

"Well, suppose there is?" snapped Mee-ko. "I wouldn't tell you anyway.
A Man Cub has no business to know the animal talk. I did my best to
keep you from touching the Magic Speech Flower. I hate you! I hate you!
I wish I were as big as my forefathers were, I'd drive you out of the
woods!"

"Come, now, Mee-ko," replied the boy, "don't be so spiteful. I haven't
done you any harm. I stopped you from stealing Mother O-pee-chee's eggs,
but you had no business with the eggs anyway. How would you like to have
some one eat up your young ones? Let bygones be bygones and tell me
about your forefathers."

"I'll not be friends with you on any terms," replied Mee-ko. "I wish
you'd stay about the farmhouse where you belong. You've no business
sneaking about in the woods, disturbing us wood folk, and spying on us
and tattling about us. Go away. You know too much now."

"Yes, no doubt he knows too much about you. We all do," said a voice.
Little Luke looked up and there was old Ko-ko-ka the Big Owl, sitting in
a hole in a tree. "As for spying and tattling," Ko-ko-ka went on, "you
are the worst of all the wild folk. It runs in your blood. The Mee-ko
family have always been meddlers. It was the first of your tribe, as
all the wood folk know, who, with his tattling; tongue, set Mal-sum the
Wicked Wolf trying to kill Gloos-cap the Good. Your foreparents were
thieves and murderers too; and you take after them.

"The Master of Life has formed some of us so that we must kill to live
and for us to kill is lawful. It is not so with you. You were made to
live on seeds and nuts, yet Kag-ax the Weasel, whom we all hate, is
scarcely more bloodthirsty than you are. And you are