ke cherry
bushes. With the oozy mud dripping from his features he looked like some
very witch just raised from the grave. The boys screamed outright. One
fainted. The rest ran yelling up the hill to the village, where each
broke at once for his mother's tepee.

As all the tents in a Dakota camping circle face the center, the boys as
they came tearing into camp were in plain view from the tepees. Hearing
the screaming, every woman in camp ran to her tepee door to see what
had happened. Just then little Brave, as badly scared as the rest, came
rushing in after them, his hair on end and covered with mud and crying
out, all forgetful of his appearance:

"It's me, it's me!"

The women yelped and bolted in terror from the village. Brave dashed
into his mother's tepee, scaring her out of her wits. Dropping pots and
kettles, she tumbled out of the tent to run screaming with the rest. Nor
would a single villager come near poor little Brave until he had gone
down to the lake and washed himself.

THE BOUND CHILDREN

There once lived a widow with two children--the elder a daughter and the
younger a son. The widow went in mourning for her husband a long time.
She cut off her hair, let her dress lie untidy on her body and kept her
face unpainted and unwashed.

There lived in the same village a great chief. He had one son just come
old enough to marry. The chief had it known that he wished his son to
take a wife, and all of the young women in the village were eager to
marry the young man. However, he was pleased with none of them.

Now the widow thought, "I am tired of mourning for my husband and caring
for my children. Perhaps if I lay aside my mourning and paint myself
red, the chief's son may marry me."

So she slipped away from her two children, stole down to the river and
made a bathing place thru the ice. When she had washed away all signs of
mourning, she painted and decked herself and went to the chief's tepee.
When his son saw her, he loved her, and a feast was made in honor of her
wedding.

When the widow's daughter found herself forsaken, she wept bitterly.
After a day or two she took her little brother in her arms and went to
the tepee of an old woman who lived at one end of the village. The old
woman's tumble down tepee was of bark and her dress and clothing was of
old smoke-dried tent cover. But she was kind to the two waifs and took
them in willingly.

The little girl was eager to find her mother.