squaws and children presuming to find, right there under
their noses, the very thing they were hunting for up and down so
anxiously! That, too, when any man's eyes, or any woman's, could now
perceive a good deal of a ripple in the water on the shallow place,
such as ought to have made them suspect it at once.

Ni-ha-be's own eyes had been the first to notice that ripple, and she
had set a couple of bright boys at the business of exploring it.

Of course the older squaws claimed the credit, when the ford was found,
but Rita remarked to her sister,

"Let Too Many Toes say she saw it first. Too much talk. She'll be
beaten again if she isn't careful."

"I saw it myself."

"I don't care. You and I have done enough, yesterday and to-day. We
must keep still."

Rita was right, and Ni-ha-be knew it; but it was very hard to hear Too
Many Toes so loudly assert her own acuteness and quickness of vision.

"She's the ugliest squaw in the whole band. Her children are ugly and
her husband is too lazy to feed them, Rita."

"Hush. Father and the chiefs are coming. Walk away."

They did not go far and they were looking back all the while. Many
Bears and his councillors marched dignifiedly down to the bank, and a
tall brave walked right on into the river.

Not a word was spoken while he waded across and back, the water nowhere
rising much above his waist, although it ran pretty swiftly.

His next business was to explore the width of the ledge, and that was
found to be at least ten feet at the narrowest.

Long before that was done, however, Ni-ha-be had been reconciled to the
policy of silence.

Too Many Toes could not be silent, and she disputed so loudly with
another old squaw over their claim to the glory of finding that ford,
that the chief and the councillors felt that something must be done for
discipline.

Many Bears nodded sharply at the husband of Too Many Toes.

"Much noise. Warriors hear too big boasting. Teach squaw."

That was enough, and in a moment more the end of a heavy hide "lariat"
or horse rope was falling rapidly upon the shoulders of the two
offenders, Too Many Toes getting much the larger share of the beating.
Her husband had been one of the braves who had wasted so much time in
finding the other ford, and he agreed with his chief that somebody
ought to be punished for it.

"Serve her right," said Ni-ha-be.

There was no question but what some kind of justice had been done, and
that w