Wife Sitting by the Fire.]

And with that he prepared food for the journey, a string of deer's
flesh for her to carry, and one for himself; and so they started. Now
the camp of the tribe was distant six days' journey, and when they
were yet one day's journey off it began to snow, and they felt weary
and longed for rest. Therefore they made a fire, cooked some food, and
spread out their skins to sleep.

Then the heart of the man was greatly stirred, and he stretched out
his arms to his wife, but she waved her hands and said, 'We have seen
no one yet; it is too soon.'

But he would not listen to her, and caught her to him, and behold! he
was clasping the wooden doll. And when he saw it was the doll he
pushed it from him in his misery and rushed away to the camp, and told
them all his story. And some doubted, and they went back with him to
the place where he and his wife had stopped to rest, and there lay the
doll, and besides, they saw in the snow the steps of two people, and
the foot of one was like the foot of the doll. And the man grieved
sore all the days of his life.

_IN THE LAND OF SOULS_[21]

Far away, in North America, where the Red Indians dwell, there lived a
long time ago a beautiful maiden, who was lovelier than any other girl
in the whole tribe. Many of the young braves sought her in marriage,
but she would listen to one only--a handsome chief, who had taken her
fancy some years before. So they were to be married, and great
rejoicings were made, and the two looked forward to a long life of
happiness together, when the very night before the wedding feast a
sudden illness seized the girl, and, without a word to her friends who
were weeping round her, she passed silently away.

The heart of her lover had been set upon her, and the thought of her
remained with him night and day. He put aside his bow, and went
neither to fight nor to hunt, but from sunrise to sunset he sat by the
place where she was laid, thinking of his happiness that was buried
there. At last, after many days, a light seemed to come to him out of
the darkness. He remembered having heard from the old, old people of
the tribe, that there was a path that led to the Land of Souls--that
if you sought carefully you could find it.

So the next morning he got up early, and put some food in his pouch
and slung an extra skin over his shoulders, for he knew not how long
his journey would take, nor what sort of country he would have to go