he addressed Fire-Flower, "I am but a boy, only beginning to
hunt, though the great braves have been kind in giving me praise for
what I have done already, but I am full of ignorance when compared to
you and the great hunters; so, to help me in the days to come, will
you not tell me how you drowned the bear, for I do not know all these
things?"

"A fine boy, Wampum is. He knows whom to ask advice and learning from,"
said Fire-Flower pompously, greatly pleased at the boy's flattery. "It
is an easy thing to do, to drown a bear," he said. "The frailest canoe
is safe even in the clutches of the fiercest. Just lay your paddle
lightly across the bear's neck, back of his ears. He will at once catch
at it each side with his claws, and he will pull, pull his own head
under water. The more he struggles the deeper he sinks."

"Yes, that is the Indian fashion of killing a bear in midstream," echoed
Fish-Carrier, "and it is a great thing for a hunter to know."

"Thank you for telling me," said the boy, rising to take his leave. "I
value all this wisdom I can learn from my own people."

"And where do you go now, Wampum?" asked Fire-Flower. "Will you not stay
and learn more wise things? You are brave, and we like you to hear us
talk."

"And your talk is good," replied the boy, smiling. "You make me feel
like the laughing loon bird, when you tell your tales and smile and
laugh yourselves. But I must leave you. I am to drive the missionary
to-day. He goes to the Delaware line once more."

"Ha! The Delawares!" sneered old Fire-Flower. "I like not those
Delawares. They worship idols. It is not good to dance around idols."

"Not good," again echoed Fish-Carrier.

"Still the Delawares are not really bad people," said Wampum. "I don't
like their hideous idol, and some day I hope to see it cut down," he
added earnestly.

"Then it will be a brave man who will do it," asserted Fire-Flower. "The
Delawares are a fierce tribe. Their eyes are too black. They cannot be
trusted. We Mohawks are brave, but I know of none who would dare cut
down that idol."

"I hope the Black Coat* won't try it himself," said Fish-Carrier.
"He is a good man. I don't want to see the Delawares kill him."

[*The Indians call missionaries "The Black Coats."]

"He certainly _will_ try it himself," said Wampum. "His heart is set on
turning the dark Delaware to his Christianity."

Fire-Flower sneered. "How little those white men know, even such great
white me