e thought; 'now they will help
me.' And she said: 'A Dancer has fallen out of the sky and a Mohawk
youth has plunged for it.'

"'The blue otter has turned into a serpent, and the Mohawk youth beheld
her eye under the waters,' they said, one after the other. The maid wept
and laid the wampum at her feet. Then she rubbed ashes on her lips and
on her breasts and in the palms of her hands.

"'The Mohawk youth has wedded the Lake Serpent,' they said, one after
the other. The maid wept; and she rubbed ashes on her thighs and on
her feet.

"'Listen,' they said, one after another; 'take strawberries and go to
the lake. You will know what to do. When that is done we will come in
the form of a cloud on the lake, not in the sky.'

"So she found strawberries in the starlight and went to the lake,
calling, 'Friend! Friend! I am going away and wish to see you!'

"Out on the lake the water began to boil, and coming out of it she saw
her friend. He had a spot on his forehead and looked like a serpent, and
yet like a man. Then she spread the berries on the shore and he came to
the land and ate. Then he went back to the shore and placed his lips to
the water, drinking. And the maid saw him going down through the water
like a snake. So she cried, 'Friends! Friends! I am going away and wish
to see you!'

"The lake boiled and her friend came out of it. The lake boiled once
more; not in one spot alone, but all over, like a high sea spouting on
a reef.

"Out of the water came her friend's wife, beautiful to behold and
shining with silver scales. Her long hair fell all around her, and
seemed like silver and gold. When she came ashore she stretched out on
the sand and took a strawberry between her lips. The young maid watched
the lake until she saw something moving on the waters a great way off,
which seemed like a cloud.

"In a moment the stars went out and it grew dark, and it thundered till
the skies fell down, torn into rain by the terrible lightning. All was
still at last, and it grew lighter. The maid opened her eyes to find
herself in the arms of her friend. But at their feet lay the dying
sparks of a shattered star.

"Then as they went back through the woods the eight chiefs passed them
in Indian file, and they saw them rising higher and higher, till they
went up to the sky like mists at sunrise."

Dorothy's voice died away; she stretched out one arm.

[Illustration: "THIS IS THE END, O YOU WISE MEN AND SACHEMS!".]

"Thi