to watch the hunters load their craft at sunup," said Hawk
Eye.

"Safe carriage depends on good loading as well as skill with the
paddles," said Black Eagle. "Be sure you re-load as well after making
portage below Lac Qui Parle. You will come to a succession of rapids
after leaving the lake behind you."

Black Eagle might have said more had not Bending Willow at that point
arrived with a bundle.

"I have brought you maple sugar," she explained, handing the package to
Raven Wing. "'Tis some that I had on hand from the sugar camp."

[Illustration: {Map of Minnesota.}]

As she finished speaking, Light Between Clouds came running toward them.

"These dried buffalo tongues will come in handy should you not find
plenty of game," she cried, giving the bundle to Hawk Eye.

Sensing that the departure was at hand, Ohitika waited no longer, but
leaped lightly into his master's craft. Stepping into their canoes, the
boys raised their paddles, then dipped them into the water and made for
the middle of the river.

CHAPTER IV

JEALOUS SLOW DOG

From his tepee Slow Dog gloomily watched the departure of Raven Wing and
Hawk Eye, and his roving eye fell on the graceful figure of Bending
Willow, who was waving a brave farewell to her only son, now fast
becoming a young brave.

Bending Willow was the daughter of a haughty chief of the Spirit Lake
and Leaf Dweller Sioux, and was considered the most beautiful woman in
the tribe. When widowed at the age of twenty, she had bravely assumed
the care and bringing up of her son.

Slow Dog had early realized that if he married her his influence in the
tribe would be greatly increased, and resenting her preference to
cherish in widowhood the memory of her husband, had been a persistent
although an unsuccessful suitor.

The day had come, however, when Slow Dog's tepee grew lonely, and many
hours had been spent near that of Taopee, whose fat daughter did
beadwork while Slow Dog played on a reed flute. In due course of time a
pony, two guns and some blankets had secured the bride, who, veiled with
a blanket was taken to her lover's lodge and left there by a friend.

From then on Slow Dog was busy with practical things, for the
father-in-law's family must be provided with game for a year, or until a
little papoose should swing from a lodge pole. Notwithstanding that his
lodge was no longer lonely, the heart of Slow Dog still yearned for the
beautiful Bending Willow.

In the ea