Indian Why Stories | Page 7

he ran until he came to a place where the water was too swift to freeze, and there he waited and watched for the Wolf to come out from under the ice, crying and wailing and making an awful noise, for a man.
"Well--right there is where the thing hap- pened. You see, Kingfisher can't fish through the ice and he knows it, too; so he always finds places like the one OLD-man found. He was there that day, sitting on the limb of a birch-tree, watching for fishes, and when OLD- man came near to Kingfisher's tree, crying like an old woman, it tickled the Fisher so much that he laughed that queer, chattering laugh.
"OLD-man heard him and--Ho! but he was angry. He looked about to see who was laughing at him and that made Kingfisher laugh again, longer and louder than before. This time OLD-man saw him and SWOW! he threw his war-club at Kingfisher; tried to kill the bird for laughing. Kingfisher ducked so quickly that OLD-man's club just grazed the feathers on his head, making them stand up straight.
"'There,' said OLD-man, 'I'll teach you to laugh at me when I'm sad. Your feathers are standing up on the top of your head now and they will stay that way, too. As long as you live you must wear a head-dress, to pay for your laughing, and all your children must do the same.
"This was long, long ago, but the King- fishers have not forgotten, and they all wear war-bonnets, and always will as long as there are Kingfishers.
"Now I will say good night, and when the sun sleeps again I will tell you why the curlew's bill is so long and crooked. Ho!"

WHY THE CURLEW'S BILL IS LONG AND CROOKED
When we reached War Eagle's lodge we stopped near the door, for the old fellow was singing--singing some old, sad song of younger days and keeping time with his tom-tom. Somehow the music made me sad and not until it had ceased, did we enter.
"How! How!"--he greeted us, with no trace of the sadness in his voice that I de- tected in his song.
"You have come here to-night to learn why the Curlew's bill is so long and crooked. I will tell you, as I promised, but first I must smoke."
In silence we waited until the pipe was laid aside, then War Eagle began:
"By this time you know that OLD-man was not always wise, even if he did make the world, and all that is on it. He often got into trouble but something always happened to get him out of it. What I shall tell you now will show you that it is not well to try to do things just because others do them. They may be right for others, and wrong for us, but OLD-man didn't understand that, you see.
"One day he saw some mice playing and went near to watch them. It was spring- time, and the frost was just coming out of the ground. A big flat rock was sticking out of a bank near a creek, and the sun had melted the frost from the earth about it, loos- ening it, so that it was about to fall. The Chief- Mouse would sing a song, while all the other mice danced, and then the chief would cry 'now!' and all the mice would run past the big rock. On the other side, the Chief-Mouse would sing again, and then say 'now!'--back they would come--right under the danger- ous rock. Sometimes little bits of dirt would crumble and fall near the rock. as though warning the mice that the rock was going to fall, but they paid no attention to the warn- ing, and kept at their playing. Finally OLD- man said:
"'Say, Chief-Mouse, I want to try that. I want to play that game. I am a good run- ner. '
"He wasn't, you know, but he thought he could run. That is often where we make great mistakes--when we try to do things we were not intended to do.
"'No--no!' cried the Chief-Mouse, as OLD- man prepared to make the race past the rock. 'No!--No!--you will shake the ground. You are too heavy, and the rock may fall and kill you. My people are light of foot and fast. We are having a good time, but if you should try to do as we are doing you might get hurt, and that would spoil our fun.'
"'Ho!' said OLD-man, 'stand back! I'll show you what a runner I am.'
"He ran like a grizzly bear, and shook the ground with his weight. Swow!--came the great rock on top of OLD-man and held him fast in the mud. My! how he screamed and called for aid. All the Mice-people ran away to find help. It was a