One day during his ramblings, he discovered a crane's nest, with
only one young crane occupying it. No doubt some fox or traveling
weasel had eaten the rest of the crane's brothers and sisters. The
boy said to himself, "I will take this poor little crane home and
will raise him as a pet for our baby. If I leave him here some
hungry fox will be sure to eat the poor little fellow." He carried
the young crane home and it grew to be nearly as tall as the boy's
five-year-old sister.
Being brought up in a human circle, it soon grew to understand all
the family said. Although it could not speak it took part in all
the games played by the children. The father of the family was, as
I have before mentioned, a great hunter. He always had a
plentiful supply of deer, antelope, buffalo and beaver meats on
hand, but there came a change. The game migrated to some other
locality, where no deadly shot like "Kutesan" (Never Miss) would be
around to annihilate their fast decreasing droves. The hunter
started out early one morning in hopes of discovering some of the
game which had disappeared as suddenly as though the earth had
swallowed them. The hunter traveled the whole day, all to no
purpose. It was late in the evening when he staggered into camp.
He was nearly dead with fatigue. Hastily swallowing a cup of
cherry bark tea (the only article of food they had in store), he at
once retired and was soon in the sweet land of dreams.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138