and
went to see who they were; and no one who once went into a wigwam ever
came out.

One young brave had heard the voices, but he feared there was magic
about them, and so he had never gone into the wigwams; but when he saw
that his friends did not come back, he went to the wigwams and called,
"Where are all the people that I have heard talk and laugh?"

"Talk and laugh," said the cunning man mockingly.

"Where are they? Do you know?" cried the brave, and the cunning man
called, "Do you know?" and laughed.

"Whose voices have I heard?"

"Have I heard?" mocked the cunning man.

"I heard a baby cry."

"Cry," said the cunning man.

"Who is with you?"

"You."

Then the young brave was angry. He ran into the first wigwam, and there
he found the man who had cried like a baby and talked in a voice like a
woman's and made all the other sounds. The brave caught him by the leg
and threw him down upon the earth.

"It was you who cried and talked and laughed," he said. "I heard your
voice and now you are going to be punished for killing our braves. Where
is my brother, and where are our friends?"

"How do I know?" cried the man. "Ask the sun or the moon or the fire if
you will, but do not ask me;" and all the time he was trying to pull the
young brave into the flames.

"I will ask the fire," said the brave. "Fire, you are a good friend to
us Indians. What has this cruel man done with our warriors?"

The fire had no voice, so it could not answer, but it sprang as far away
from the hunter as it could, and there where the flames had been he saw
two stone arrowheads.

"I know who owned the two arrowheads," said the brave. "You have thrown
my friends into your fire. Now I will do to you what you have done to
them."

He threw the cunning man into the fire. His head burst into two pieces,
and from between them a bird flew forth. Its voice was loud and clear,
but it had no song of its own. It could only mock the songs of other
birds, and that is why it is called the mocking-bird.

WHY THE TAIL OF THE FOX HAS A WHITE TIP.

"I must have a boy to watch my sheep and my cows," thought an old woman,
and so she went out to look for a boy. She looked first in the fields
and then in the forest, but nowhere could she find a boy. As she was
walking down the path to her home, she met a bear.

"Where are you going?" asked the bear.

"I am looking for a boy to watch my cows and my sheep," she answered.

"Will you ha