saw his son standing up inside,
and painting his breast with bright red paint.

"What are you doing, my son? Come and eat! Here is meal and meat for
you. Come and eat and hunt like a good Indian."

But the son could only reply in a chirping little voice: "It is too
late, father. You have killed me at last, and now I am becoming a bird."
And as he spoke he turned into the o-pe-che--the robin redbreast--and
flew out of the hole and away to join the other birds; but he never flew
very far from where men live.

The cruel father set out to go back to his wigwam; but he could never
find the village again, and after he had wandered about a long time he
lay down in the forest and died; and soon afterward the redbreast found
him, and buried him under a heap of dry leaves. Every year after that,
when the time of the hunter's fast came round, the redbreast perched on
his father's empty wigwam and sang the song of the dead.

THE THREE WISHES

Once upon a time there were three brothers who set out on a visit to
Goose-cap, the wise one, who said that any one might come and see him,
and get a wish--just one wish, no more. The three brothers were seven
years on the journey, climbing mountains that seemed to have no top, and
scrambling through forests full of thorn-bushes, and wading through
swamps where the mosquitoes tried to eat them up, and sailing down
rivers where the rapids broke up their rafts and nearly drowned them.

At the end of seven years they heard Goose-cap's dogs barking, so then
they knew they were on the right road; and they went on for three months
more, and the barking got a little louder every day, till at last they
came to the edge of the great lake. Then Goose-cap saw them, and sailed
over in his big stone canoe and took them to his island.

You never saw such a beautiful island as that was, it was so green and
warm and bright; and Goose-cap feasted his visitors for three days and
nights, with meats and fruits that they had never tasted before. Then he
said: "Tell me what you want, and why you have taken so much trouble to
find me."

The youngest brother said: "I want to be always amusing, so that no one
can listen to me without laughing."

Then the great wise one stuck his finger in the ground, and pulled up a
root of the laughing-plant and said: "When you have eaten this you will
be the funniest man in the tribe, and people will laugh as soon as you
open your lips. But see that you don't eat