her as she walked. And the dragon-fly and the
grasshopper, the spider and the caterpillar, all knew that they could
not cross the magic circle of Minnehaha's footsteps.

When the morning came, however, Kahgahgee gathered about him all his
black and rascally crew of ravens and jays and crows and blackbirds,
shrieking with laughter, and with harsh cries and raucous clamor they
all left the tree-tops and flapped eagerly down upon the cornfields.
"Kaw! Kaw!" they shrieked, "we will dig up the corn from the soft earth,
and we will eat all we can hold, in spite of Minnehaha and her foolish
circle!"

But Hiawatha had overheard the ravens as they laughed at him from among
the tree-tops. He had risen before daybreak and had covered the
cornfields with snares, and at that moment he was hiding in the woods
until all the evil birds should alight on the fields and begin their
wicked feast.

They came with a rush of wings and hungry cries, settled down upon the
cornfields and began to dig and delve and scratch in the earth for the
corn that had been planted there, and with all their skill and cunning,
they did not see that anything was amiss until their claws were caught
in Hiawatha's snares and they were helpless.

Then Hiawatha left his hiding-place among the bushes and strode toward
the captive ravens, and his appearance was so awful that the bravest of
them hopped and shrieked and flapped their wings in terror. He walked
among them, and killed them to the right and left in tens and twenties
without mercy; and he hung their dead bodies on poles, to serve as
scarecrows and to frighten away all other thieves and robbers from the
sacred fields of corn. Only one of the ravens was spared by Hiawatha and
that was Kahgahgee, the ruler of them all. Hiawatha tied him with a
string and fastened him to the ridge-pole of his wigwam, saying:
"Kahgahgee, you are the cause of all this mischief, and I am going to
hold you as a warning to all the ravens left alive. If they light upon
the cornfields and begin again their wicked thieving, I will kill you
and hang your body on a pole as an example." And Hiawatha left Kahgahgee
tied fast to the ridge-pole of the wigwam, hopping and tugging angrily
at his string and croaking in vain for his friends to come and set him
free.

The summer passed, and all the air became warm and soft with the haze of
early autumn. The corn had grown tall and yellow, and the ears were
almost bursting from their sheath