e rope, and being
quite blind he did nothing but stumble over fallen logs, and bruise
himself against the trunks of trees, and scratch his face among the
briers and brambles, until at last he could bear it no longer, and cried
out to his comrade to come to his aid.

Instantly the youth appeared and gave him back his eyes, saying at the
same time:

"Friend, be not so rash in future! It is right to help those who are in
trouble, but one must also consider whether he himself is able to hold
out to the end."

TWENTY-FIRST EVENING

THE LAUGH-MAKER

TWENTY-FIRST EVENING

"You remember the young man who married among the Bear people," begins
Grandfather. "Now to us the Bear seems at times almost human; he can
stand and even walk erect; he will cry and groan very like a man when
hurt, and there are those who say that he laughs. In the old stories the
Bears are a powerful nation; and there is a young man, perhaps the same
one I told you of before, who is said to have been living among them at
one time with his wife, Woshpee, and their little son."

THE LAUGH-MAKER

The village of the Bears was a large one, and the people were well-fed
and prosperous. Upon certain days, a herald went the round of the
lodges, announcing in a loud voice that the time had come to "go
a-laughing." Not a Bear was left in the village at such times, for every
one went, old and young, sick and well, the active and the lame. Only
the stranger remained at home, although his wife, Woshpee, always went
with her kinsfolk, for somehow he did not feel inclined to "go
a-laughing;" and he kept with him his little son, who was half Bear and
half human.

One day, however, a curiosity seized him to know what this laughing
business might be. He took his boy and followed the Bears at a distance,
not choosing to be seen. Their trail led to the shore of the Great
Water, and when he had come as near as he could without exposing
himself, he climbed a tall pine from whose bushy top he could observe
all that took place.

The gathering of the Bears was on a deep bay that jutted inland. Its
rocky shores were quite black with them, and as soon as all had become
quiet, an old Bear advanced to the water's edge and called in a loud
voice:

"E-ha-we-cha-ye-la, e-ha-un-he-pee lo! (Laugh-maker, we are come to
laugh!)"

When he had called four times, a small object appeared in the midst of
the water and began to swim toward the shore. By and by the s