and wise Magician,
who was yet upon the earth. And so they did.

"When he came he found that, as usual, the children had run away from
home and could not be found. They had already been gone two or three
days.

"Gloos-cap frowned and looked very stern. 'I will find them,' said he,
'and when I find them I will punish them as they deserve.'

"By his magic power he was able to follow their trail, which their
parents had not been able to find.

"At length he saw them. They were playing about on the muddy shore of
a small lake. Out of the mud they were making many different kinds of
objects, especially little wigwams.

"He walked down to where they were. 'You naughty children,' said he,
'are you not ashamed of yourselves, to disobey your parents and make
them so much sorrow and trouble?'

"'No, we are not,' spoke up one bold, saucy little fellow. 'We don't
care for what they say. We've been having a good time all by ourselves.'

"'Very well,' said Gloos-cap, 'since you are not willing to obey your
parents, you shall never trouble them any more. You shall become birds.
Since you love to play in the mud, you shall always build your nests of
mud; and since you love to gad about so much, you shall wander about the
earth forever.'

"And so it has been with the swallow folk since that time.

"But," went on the old swallow, "our foreparents learned their lesson,
and since that time we always bring up our children to be very obedient.
No doubt you have noticed how very well they mind."

[Illustration]

XIV. LITTLE LUKE AND A-BAL-KA THE CHIPMUNK

One of little Luke's best friends among the wild folk was A-bal-ka the
Chipmunk. He was a dainty little fellow about five inches long, with a
tail of the same length. His coat was of a yellowish-brown color, with
black stripes running down his back. This fine, striped coat made him
look much prettier than his cousin Mee-ko the Red Squirrel.

He was a clean, jolly, little chap, and very fond of singing, though he
knew but two songs. One was a sharp chip, chip, chip, which he would
sometimes keep up for a long time. At a distance it sounded like the
call note of some bird. The other was a cuck, cuck, cuck, which sounded
much like the song of the Cuckoo. A curious thing about this song was
that one could scarcely tell where it came from. Little Luke was often
deceived by it. Sometimes when it sounded as if A-bal-ka was near by, he
was really a good way off, and wh