ave found here on this spot," said he, stamping his heavy foot.
"I want them! See! I am strong!" repeated he, lifting both his terrible
paws.

Quietly the father badger spoke: "I fed you. I called you friend, though
you came here a stranger and a beggar. For the sake of my little ones
leave us in peace."

Mother badger, in her excited way, had pierced hard through the buckskin
and stuck her fingers repeatedly with her sharp awl until she had laid
aside her work. Now, while her husband was talking to the bear, she
motioned with her hands to the children. On tiptoe they hastened to her
side.

For reply came a low growl. It grew louder and more fierce. "Wa-ough!"
he roared, and by force hurled the badgers out. First the father badger;
then the mother. The little badgers he tossed by pairs. He threw them
hard upon the ground. Standing in the entrance way and showing his ugly
teeth, he snarled, "Be gone!"

The father and mother badger, having gained their feet, picked up
their kicking little babes, and, wailing aloud, drew the air into their
flattened lungs till they could stand alone upon their feet. No sooner
had the baby badgers caught their breath than they howled and shrieked
with pain and fright. Ah! what a dismal cry was theirs as the whole
badger family went forth wailing from out their own dwelling! A little
distance away from their stolen house the father badger built a small
round hut. He made it of bent willows and covered it with dry grass and
twigs.

This was shelter for the night; but alas! it was empty of food and
arrows. All day father badger prowled through the forest, but without
his arrows he could not get food for his children. Upon his return, the
cry of the little ones for meat, the sad quiet of the mother with bowed
head, hurt him like a poisoned arrow wound.

"I'll beg meat for you!" said he in an unsteady voice. Covering his
head and entire body in a long loose robe he halted beside the big black
bear. The bear was slicing red meat to hang upon the rack. He did not
pause for a look at the comer. As the badger stood there unrecognized,
he saw that the bear had brought with him his whole family. Little cubs
played under the high-hanging new meats. They laughed and pointed with
their wee noses upward at the thin sliced meats upon the poles.

"Have you no heart, Black Bear? My children are starving. Give me a
small piece of meat for them," begged the badger.

"Wa-ough!" growled the angry bear,