red up at the
newly dignified Manitous in delicious silence.

"There was a legend once, you remember?" he began hesitatingly, "the
first day we were on the Rock together. It was about a Spirit
Mountain."

"Yes, I remember, the day we saw the Shadow."

"You said you'd tell it to me some time."

"Did I?"

"Don't you think now is a good time?"

She considered a moment idly.

"Why, yes, I suppose so," she assented, after a pause. "It isn't much
of a legend though." She clasped her hands back of her head. "It goes
like this," she began comfortably:

"Once upon a time, when the world was very young, there was an evil
Manitou named _Ne-naw-bo-shoo_. He was a very wicked Manitou, but he
was also very accomplished, for he could change himself into any shape
he wished to assume, and he could travel swifter than the wind. But he
was also very wicked. In old times the centres of all the trees were
fat, and people could get food from them, but _Ne-naw-bo-shoo_ walked
through the forest and pushed his staff down through the middle of the
trunks, and that is why the cores of the trees are dark-coloured. Maple
sap used to be pure sirup once, too, but _Ne-naw-bo-shoo_ diluted it
with rain water just out of spite. But there was one peculiar thing
about _Ne-naw-bo-shoo_. He could not cross a vein of gold or of silver.
There was some sort of magic in them that turned him back--repelled
him.

"Now, one day two lovers were wandering about on the prairie away east
of here. One of them was named _Mon-e-dowa_, or the Bird Lover, and the
other was _Muj-e-ah-je-wan_, or Rippling Water. And as these two walked
over the plains talking together, along came the evil spirit,
_Ne-naw-bo-shoo_, and as soon as he saw them he chased them, intending
to kill them and drink their blood, as was his custom.

"They fled far over the prairie. Everywhere that _Muj-e-ah-je-wan_
stepped, prairie violets grew up; and everywhere that _Mon-e-dowa_
stepped, a lark sprang up and began to sing. But the wicked
_Ne-naw-bo-shoo_ gained on them fast, for he could run very swiftly.

"Then suddenly they saw in front of them a great mountain, grown with
pines and seamed with fissures. This astonished them greatly, for they
knew there were no mountains in the prairie country at all; but they
had no time to spare, so they climbed quickly up a broad canon and
concealed themselves.

"Now, when the wicked Manitou came along he tried to enter the canon
too, but he ha