did not know what they would do. During the night a strange
thing happened. Their lodges were caught as if by unseen hands, lifted
high in the air, and tossed into the river. The little children clung
to their mothers in terror, while these unseen hands seemed trying to
pull them away and toss them after the lodges. The Indians, terrified,
gathered around their chief.

"What is this?" they cried. "What is this awful thing that has such
strength and which we cannot see?"

"It is the wind, my children," said the chief. "Far up on the mountain
lives the Windmaker. This is his message to us, to tell us that he is
angry, because we have left our mountain home. Let us all go back to
our home and be happy once more."

But the Indians murmured at this. They did not wish to go back to the
mountains. They wished to see what was beyond the great prairie. The
chief sadly shook his head and said, "Well, my children, you must
suffer what the Windmaker sends us."

Then up spoke a young warrior named Broken Arrow. He had long wished
for a chance to show the chief that he was brave, for he loved the
chief's daughter and knew he could not wed her until he had proven his
bravery.

"Oh, chief," he said, "let me go to this Windmaker. Let me shoot my
sharpest arrows at him, so that I may kill this wicked one who is
causing so much sorrow."

The chief smiled at the brave youth and said, "My son, you may go, but
it is a useless quest. This Windmaker cannot be killed."

Broken Arrow replied proudly, "We shall see. My arrows carry far and
fly straight. This Windmaker shall feel their point."

The women of the tribe put food in a bag and several pairs of
moccasins, and the young warrior set out on his journey. Day and night
he travelled, and at last, after his food was all gone and his last
pair of moccasins was nearly worn out, he reached the foot of the great
mountain where the Windmaker lived. Looking up, he saw the monster,--a
great, gray creature that seemed a part of the mountain itself. His
head was crowned with snow-white hair that lay around his shoulders
like drifts of snow. His huge ears stood out from the sides of his
head, and as he waved them, a breeze came down the mountain side that
almost took the warrior off his feet. Fitting an arrow into his bow,
he let it fly. It was aimed for the Windmaker's heart, and was going
straight there, when the monster moved one ear and the arrow flew to
one side. Th