ather at last said:

"Well, then, I must beg for you!"

So he crept back to his old home, where the Bear family now lived and
grew fat. Standing in the doorway, he begged quite humbly for a small
piece of meat.

"I would not trouble you," said he, "but my little folks are starving!"

[Illustration]

However, the Bear got up and turned him angrily out-of-doors, while the
ill-natured little Bears chuckled and laughed to see how thin and hungry
he looked!

All laughed but one, and that one was the smallest and ugliest of the
cubs, who had always been teased and abused by the others. He was sorry
for the poor Badger, and when no one was looking he slyly stole a piece
of his mother's meat and threw it into their hut, and then ran home
again.

This happened several times, and now the family of Badgers were only
kept from starving by the gifts of the kind-hearted little Bear.

At last came the Avenger, who sprang from a drop of innocent blood. He
is very tall, strong and beautiful, and is feared by all wrong-doers.
The Bear saw him coming and began to tremble. He at once called to the
Badger, who was not far off, and invited him to come and eat.

But the Avenger came first! Then the Bear called upon his wife and
children to follow him, and took to his heels. He ran as fast as he
could, looking over his shoulder from time to time, for he was really
terribly frightened. He never came back any more, and the Badger family
returned and joyfully possessed their old home.

_There is no meanness like ingratitude._

EIGHTH EVENING

THE GOOD-LUCK TOKEN

EIGHTH EVENING

"Ah, Teona, I saw you out to-day with your new bow and arrows! I hope
you have not been hasty to display your skill with the new weapons to
the injury of any harmless creature," says old Smoky Day, gravely, as
the boy hunter arrives quite out of breath.

"You have been told," he adds, "that the animals long ago agreed to
sacrifice their lives for ours, when we are in need of food or of skins
for garments, but that we are forbidden to kill for sport alone."

"Why, grandfather," the boy admits, "I followed a gray squirrel from
tree to tree, and shot at him more than once, but he always dodged the
arrow in time!"

"And were you then hungry? did you have any use for the little fellow if
you had killed him?" the old man persists. "There was once a squirrel
who made a treaty of peace with a little boy like you. I will tell you
his story to-n