and more ducks fall. Swift Elk ran on out
of sight.

Then the little girl crawled from her hiding-place and crept along the
ground in search of the missing duck. Surely there was something
stirring in the long grass ahead. Almost afraid to move, the child
crept closer and closer, until she saw a duck with a broken wing
hanging useless by its side.

In a moment she had caught it. She held the bird in her arms until its
struggles ceased. Then she bound its wing to its body with long pieces
of grass.

She crawled to the stream and dropped water in its bill. The duck
swallowed the water but refused all food.

White Cloud watched every movement in the distance, not daring to
stand lest Swift Elk return. So she worked her way, concealed by high
grass, to the home trail.

How she ran until she reached the low wigwam built for her dolls! Here
she made a soft bed for the wounded bird. She smoothed its feathers
and talked to it. How happy she was when she was able to coax the duck
to eat the food she offered!

Swift Elk came home at night with all the game he could carry. His
mother praised his hunting, and his father was pleased because he had
passed the entire day alone and without a mouthful of food.

"You must endure hunger and thirst, cold and heat, danger and pain, if
you would become a great warrior," said his father. "And you must find
your way alone through the forest for miles and miles, listening every
moment for the footsteps of an enemy or the approach of a wild beast."

A fire had been made in front of the lodge. The ducks were buried,
feathers and all, in the hot ashes. White Cloud brought wild berries
and water from the spring. As soon as the birds were roasted the
feathers and skins were pulled off and the hungry boy enjoyed his meal.

But White Cloud watched her chance to carry part of her own food to
the duck. How she hated to leave him when the dark came on! But she
fastened the shelter securely, hoping that no lurking fox or weasel
would force his way inside.

The next morning White Cloud was up before her brother. She hid in the
tiny lodge, to protect her pet until Swift Elk had left for the day.

The duck soon became so tame that it followed her wherever she went.
The difficulty in taming the wild creature, and the constant danger of
losing it, led the child to be as kind and patient with her pet as an
Indian mother is with her papoose.

One day Good Bird was roasting deer meat. She had made