ke in two.

"Ah!" declared the other two, "we are better off without those feeble
ones!"

The Pickerel and the Turtle, being left alone, advanced bravely into the
country of the enemy. At the head of the lake they were met and quickly
surrounded. The Pickerel escaped by swimming, but the Turtle, that slow
one, was caught!

They took him to the village, and there the head men held a council to
decide what should be done with him.

"We will build a fire and roast him alive in the midst of it," one
proposed.

"Hi-i-i!" the Turtle shrilled his war-cry. "That is the brave death I
would choose! I shall trample the fire, and scatter live coals among the
people!"

"No," declared another, "we will boil water and throw him into the pot!"

"Hi-i-i!" again cried the Turtle. "I shall dance in the boiling pot,
and clouds of steam will arise to blind the eyes of the people!"

The counsellors looked doubtfully at one another, and at last one said:

"Why not carry him out to the middle of the lake and drown him?"

Then the Turtle drew in his head and became silent.

"Alas!" he groaned, "that is the only death I fear!"

So the people took him in a canoe, and rowed out to the middle of the
lake. There they dropped him in, and he sank like a stone!

But the next minute he came up to the top of the water and again uttered
his war-cry.

"Hi-i-i!" he cried. "Now I am at home!" And he dived and swam wherever
he would.

This story teaches us that _patience and quick wit are better than
speed_.

FIFTH EVENING

THE FALCON AND THE DUCK

FIFTH EVENING

The boaster is a well-known character in every Indian village; and it is
quite plain from the number of stories warning us against self-praise,
that the wise men of the tribe have not been slow to discover and point
out this weakness of their people.

The stories told by Smoky Day are seldom without a moral, and we may be
sure that the children are not sent to him only to be entertained, but
also to learn and profit by the stored-up wisdom of the past. Moreover,
they are expected afterward to repeat the tales in the family circle,
and there is much rivalry among the little folks as to who shall tell
them best. Teona has a good memory and ready wit, and his versions are
commonly received with approval, but it happens that little Tanagela,
his cousin, has just won a triumph by her sprightly way of telling the
fourth evening's tale of the seven warriors. The litt