rs being taken on both sides.

Here and there were young braves who had been hit in the face and
badly hurt. One was suffering great pain with a swollen eye.

Do you think he left the game and ran home? Do you think he cried or
told tales? A boy would rather stand pain than be laughed at by his
companions. "Tears are for girls and women," they had all heard their
fathers say. "A warrior must not notice pain."

At last, heated and mud-stained, they ran to the lake and jumped in.
You would have thought they all needed a bath, could you have seen them.

Splashing and swimming, diving and yelling, they continued their
battle by wrestling in the water. The day wore on. One by one, tired
with action, they left the lake. Some lay on the grass, and others
made images of animals with soft clay.

[Illustration]

Two or three boys, very hungry, shot some birds, made a fire, and
roasted their game. It mattered not to them that their food was far
from clean.

Before they went home at night, Swift Elk's band dared the other side
to a ball game, to be played the next morning.

"Let us ask Black Wolf to watch our game," said Swift Elk. All agreed.
The old warrior could not go on the long hunt or the warpath, and
nothing gave him greater pleasure than to help the boys and young men
in their games of strength or skill.

[Illustration]

THE BALL GAME

Early in the morning the boys met on the level piece of ground that
had been selected for the game. At each end of the field two upright
poles, a little distance apart, were erected for goal sticks.

In the great ball games played by the men, each side is allowed but
one goal stick, which must be hit by the ball. As this is very
difficult, Black Wolf helped the boys set up two very long sticks,
between which the winner's ball was to be thrown.

Each player always carries a ball stick bent at one end into a small
hoop or ring. Strips of rawhide are passed through holes in the hoop,
making a netted pocket in which the ball may rest half hidden.

The one simple rule that each player follows at all times is: "Keep
the ball away from your own goal." Only by sending the ball off the
field between the two goal sticks of the opposite side can victory be
won.

Swift Elk and Antelope were chosen captains because they were good
runners. All the best players stood in the middle of the field. The
younger boys were grouped about the goal sticks with orders to send
the ball back