The Indian Fairy Book | Page 4

confusion immediately arose; not one but
sprang forward. Some chose a foot, some a wing, some a tail, and some
a claw. Those who selected tails or claws were changed into animals,
and ran off; the others assumed the form of birds, and flew away.
Waupee chose a white hawk's feather. His wife and son followed his
example, and each one became a white hawk. He spread his wings, and,
followed by his wife and son, descended with the other birds to the
earth, where he is still to be found, with the brightness of the starry
plains in his eye, and the freedom of the heavenly breezes in his wings.

II.
THE BOY WHO SET A SNARE FOR THE SUN.
At the time when the animals reigned in the earth, they had killed all
the people but a girl and her little brother, and these two were living in
fear, in an out-of-the-way place. The boy was a perfect little pigmy, and
never grew beyond the size of a mere infant; but the girl increased with
her years, so that the task of providing food and shelter fell wholly
upon her. She went out daily to get wood for the lodge-fire, and she
took her little brother with her that no mishap might befall him; for he
was too little to leave alone. A big bird, of a mischievous disposition,
might have flown away with him. She made him a bow and arrows, and
said to him one day, "My little brother, I will leave you behind where I
have been gathering the wood; you must hide yourself, and you will
soon see the snow-birds come and pick the worms out of the logs
which I have piled up. Shoot one of them and bring it home."
He obeyed her, and tried his best to kill one, but he came home
unsuccessful. His sister told him that he must not despair, but try again
the next day.
She accordingly left him at the gathering-place of the wood, and
returned to the lodge. Toward night-fall she heard his little footsteps
crackling through the snow, and he hurried in and threw down, with an
air of triumph, one of the birds which he had killed. "My sister," said he,
"I wish you to skin it, and stretch the skin, and when I have killed more,
I will have a coat made out of them."
"But what shall we do with the body?" said she; for they had always up
to that time lived upon greens and berries.
"Cut it in two," he answered, "and season our pottage with one half of it
at a time."
It was their first dish of game, and they relished it greatly.
The boy kept on in his efforts, and in the course of time he killed ten

birds--out of the skins of which his sister made him a little coat: being
very small, he had a very pretty coat, and a bird skin to spare.
"Sister," said he, one day, as he paraded up and down before the lodge,
enjoying his new coat, and fancifying himself the greatest little fellow
in the world--as he was, for there was no other beside him--"My sister,
are we really alone in the world, or are we playing at it? Is there
nobody else living? And, tell me, was all this great broad earth and this
huge big sky made for a little boy and girl like you and me?"
She told him, by no means; there were many folks very unlike a
harmless girl and boy, such as they were, who lived in a certain other
quarter of the earth, who had killed off all of their kinsfolk; and that if
he would live blameless and not endanger his life, he must never go
where they were. This only served to inflame the boy's curiosity; and
he soon after took his bow and arrows and went in that direction. After
walking a long time and meeting no one, he became tired, and stretched
himself upon a high green knoll where the day's warmth had melted off
the snow.
It was a charming place to lie upon, and he fell asleep; and, while
sleeping, the sun beat so hot upon him that it not only singed his
bird-skin coat, but it so shrivelled and shrunk and tightened it upon the
little boy's body, as to wake him up.
When he felt how the sun had seared and the mischief its fiery beams
had played with the coat he was so proud of, he flew into a great
passion, and berated the sun in a terrible way for a little boy no higher
than a man's knee, and he vowed fearful things against it.
"Do not think you are too high," said