thickly amongst
it. He made the water this way because he did not wish the animals to
drink it. Then he made beautiful, clear rivers flow through the land
to be their drinking water. In the rivers he made fish swim, and
called all the animals who lived on fish to come and live near the
banks of the rivers. In the trees he told the birds to build their
nests, and soon all the animals and birds were happy and contented in
their homes.

They all loved Wesakchak, for he was so wise and good. He was kind to
them all and called them his brothers. He knew the secrets of the
animals: why the moose is ungainly and has no flesh on his bones, why
the rabbit's ears are long and have each a little roll of flesh behind
it, and why the rat has no hair upon its tail. He understood all the
languages of the animals, and each came to him when it was in trouble.

There was one animal who was very smart and clever. He was about the
size of the wolf and was called the wolverine. He had beautiful, soft
fur, long, straight legs, and firm feet. But he was not liked by the
other animals, for he was very conceited. He was always talking about
his beautiful fur and his long legs. He would ask the other animals to
race with him, because he knew he could always win. Then he would
laugh at them for not being able to run as fast as he could. He was
always getting into mischief, too, and never seemed happy unless he was
playing a trick on some other animal. The other animals often came and
told Wesakchak how mean the wolverine was to them. He would tell them
to try to be patient, and then he would scold the wolverine for being
so unkind. The wolverine would pretend he was very sorry, but the very
next day he would do some more mean tricks.

One day he came past the wigwam of Wesakchak. Looking in, he saw that
it was empty, and that the Fire Bag, where Wesakchak always kept his
steel and flint and his pipe and tobacco-pouch, was hanging on the
wall. The wolverine looked around and saw that no one was near, so he
sneaked in and grabbed the bag. He ran away through the bush with it
until he came to a tall tamarac tree. He climbed the tree and hung the
bag on one of the branches. Then he jumped down and ran away, laughing
to himself at the trick he had played on Wesakchak.

When Wesakchak returned home, it was nearly evening, and he was tired
and hungry. He looked around for his Fire Bag, for he wished to make a
fire. The way t