d outgrown him; he was
alone again, as on the day of their meeting. His years had brought a
certain insight; and this he grasped--that the times were changed, and
his was the way of a bygone day.

"Mine is the wisdom of the woods," he said, "but the woods are going
fast; in a few years there will be no more trees, and my wisdom will
be foolishness. There is in this land now a big, strong thing called
'trade,' that will eat up all things and the people themselves. You are
wise enough, Nibowaka, to paddle with the stream, you have turned so the
big giant is on your side, and his power is making you great. But this
is not for me; so only I have enough to eat, and comfort to sleep, I am
content to watch for the light."

Across the valley from the big store he dwelt, in a lodge from which he
could easily see the sunrise. Twenty-five years added to the fifty he
spent in the land of Mayn Mayano had dimmed his eye, had robbed his foot
of its spring, and sprinkled his brow with the winter rime; but they had
not changed his spirit, nor taught him less to love the pine woods
and the sunrise. Yes, even more than in former days did he take his
song-drum to the rock of worship, to his idaho--as the western red man
would have called it. And there, because it was high and the wind blew
cold, he made a little eastward-facing lodge.

He was old and hunting was too hard for him, but there was a strong
arm about him now; he dimly thought of it at times--the arm of the
fifteen-year-old boy that one time he had shielded. There was no lack
of food or blankets in the wigwam, or of freedom in the woods under the
sun-up rock. But there was a hunger that not farseeing Nibowaka could
appease, not even talk about. And Quonab built another medicine lodge
to watch the sun go down over the hill. Sitting by a little fire to
tune his song-drum, he often crooned to the blazing skies. "I am of the
sunset now, I and my people," he sang, "the night is closing over us."

One day a stranger came to the hills; his clothes were those of a white
man, but his head, his feet, and his eyes--his blood, his walk, and his
soul were those of a red Indian of the West. He came from the unknown
with a message to those who knew him not: "The Messiah was coming; the
deliverer that Hiawatha bade them look for. He was coming in power
to deliver the red race, and his people must sing the song of the
ghost-dance till the spirit came, and in a vision taught them wisdom and
h