drown Stone
Boy. Old Badger and the Grizzly Bear are appointed to burrow underneath
our fortifications.

"'However, I am not at all afraid for myself, but I am anxious for you,
Mother, and for my uncles.'

"'Ugh!' grunted all the uncles, 'we told you that you would get into
trouble by killing so many of our sacred animals for your own amusement.

"'But,' continued Stone Boy, 'I shall make a good resistance, and I
expect you all to help me.'

"Accordingly they all worked under his direction in preparing for the
defence. First of all, he threw a pebble into the air, and behold a
great rocky wall around their teepee. A second, third, fourth and fifth
pebble became other walls without the first. From the sixth and seventh
were formed two stone lodges, one upon the other. The uncles meantime,
made numbers of bows and quivers full of arrows, which were ranged at
convenient distances along the tops of the walls. His mother prepared
great quantities of food and made many moccasins for her boy, who
declared that he would defend the fortress alone.

"At last they saw the army of beasts advancing, each tribe by itself
and commanded by a leader of extraordinary size. The onset was terrific.
They flung themselves against the high walls with savage cries, while
the badgers and other burrowing animals ceaselessly worked to undermine
them. Stone Boy aimed his sharp arrows with such deadly effect that his
enemies fell by thousands. So great was their loss that the dead bodies
of the animals formed a barrier higher than the first, and the armies
retired in confusion.

"But reinforcements were at hand. The rain fell in torrents; the beavers
had dammed all the rivers and there was a great flood. The besieged all
retreated into the innermost lodge, but the water poured in through
the burrows made by the badgers and gophers, and rose until Stone Boy's
mother and his ten uncles were all drowned. Stone Boy himself could not
be entirely destroyed, but he was overcome by his enemies and left half
buried in the earth, condemned never to walk again, and there we find
him to this day.

"This was because he abused his strength, and destroyed for mere
amusement the lives of the creatures given him for use only."

VI. EVENING IN THE LODGE

I: Evening in the Lodge

I HAD been skating on that part of the lake where there was an overflow,
and came home somewhat cold. I cannot say just how cold it was, but it
must have been intens