he learned that in some matters Old John was very wise. But these
were mostly concerned with hunting and trapping. Little Luke did not
like the idea of killing any of his wild friends, even though he knew
that their flesh and fur were very useful. He knew, too, that the Law of
the Wild Kindred allowed everyone to kill to supply his need and so he
did not much mind the killing in Old John's stories, for he knew that
the old man never killed any creature needlessly.

And he learned, too, that the old Indian had some strange notions about
the wild folk. He believed that long ago they had all been very much
like men. "In those days," he said, "the animals could talk and build
wigwams just as the Red Men did." He believed, too, that the forefathers
of some tribes of the Red Men had been animals, and that the forefathers
of some of the animal kindreds had been men. All this seemed queer to
the boy, but not half so queer as it would have seemed before the
Finding of the Magic Speech Flower and his talks with the wild folk.

Now the tale of the Finding of the Magic Flower was told abroad among
all the tribes of the wild folk round about. For this reason, as time
went on, many of them came to see the wonderful Man Cub (as they often
called little Luke) who could speak and understand the language of the
wild kindreds.

In that way little Luke came to know many of the wild folk that he had
never seen before. Some of them were furry folk, who lived in the woods
and fields and along the brooks, and some were beautiful feathered folk,
who came down from the tops of the tall pines and spruces and hemlocks.

These were mostly bird folk who had once lived in the Summer Land and
had learned to travel southward before the return of Pe-boan the cruel
Winter King. They loved the upper spaces of the great forests, and there
they lived as some of the water folk live in the lower depths of the
great sea.

These bird folk hated the open fields and even the lower air, in the
thick forests, seemed heavy and unpleasant to them. So they seldom came
down from their airy homes in the upper branches of the great trees. For
this reason little Luke did not see much of them, but when he did see
one of them, it was as if he had seen an angel.

[Illustration]

VI. LITTLE LUKE AND KIT-CHEE THE GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER

Down in the far corner of the orchard stood an old apple tree. Some of
its limbs were dead and the rest of it was so