University of Virginia Library

44. The Indian Boy and the Magic Bears[162]

THE youngest of the three brothers now decided to go away, because both he and his sister feared that the surviving bears would visit them and do them injury in revenge for what the boy hunter had done to their people. The sister urged her brother to go, and gave him a stone ornament which she wore in her hair, and a large handful of blueberries. The boy hunter still had four arrows. These things he was to use as she instructed him, at a time which would come, when every other means of saving his life failed. Then he started away in a direction new to him, to find a place where he might live in safety.

While he was going along slowly one day, he heard behind him a peculiar sound, as of many footsteps. Looking back, he beheld some bears following him, and he at once realized that they had discovered his trail, and that they were now in pursuit of him. He began to run, crying out, "What shall I do? The bears have found my tracks, and are after me!" The country in which he was now passing was an apparently endless prairie, with nothing growing upon it but short grass; but as he flew onward he heard a voice, which said, "So soon as the bears catch you they will kill you; now you must use your arrows."

Immediately the boy hunter remembered that he had his weapons and the articles which his sister had given him. Taking an arrow from his quiver, he fixed it to his bowstring, and as he was about to shoot it into the air before him he said to the arrow, "When you come down, there shall be about you a copse covering an area as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."

Away flew the arrow, and the moment it struck and entered the earth there was a small hole in the ground, around which sprung up a dense growth of brush The little boy ran to the hole, crawled into it, and then went to the edge of the brush, where he came up and hid by the side of a tree which also had sprung out of the ground. As the bears came to the spot where they had seen the boy disappear, they began to tear up the brush until not a piece remained standing. Not finding the hunter, the bears began to search for his last footprints, and finding that they terminated at the hole made by the arrow they at once followed him. As the bears were now in close pursuit of the boy, he again disappeared in the ground and started away until he had got quite a distance from the tree, when he again emerged and started to run away along the prairie.

By the time the bears reached the tree where the boy had rested for a moment, they were again delayed in trailing him, but they finally succeeded in tracking him out to the prairie, where they espied him running in the distance. They immediately set out in pursuit, but it was a long time before they neared him. When the bears approached, the hunter took his second arrow, and shooting it into the air before him, said to it, "When you come down there shall be about you a

copse as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."

When the arrow descended and entered the earth there appeared a dense undergrowth which completely hid the boy, who then went to the hole, crawled into it, and travelled along in the ground until he had passed beyond the end of the copse, where he emerged and hid by a tree which also had sprung up.

As before, the bears were infuriated at the escape of the boy, and tore up the brush in every direction in their search for him. Finally they discovered the arrow hole, which they entered. Following the footsteps of the boy they soon found the place where he had taken refuge, but before they reached him he found himself pursued, and, again diving under the surface, he started away for some distance, when he emerged from beneath the ground and started away over the prairie as before. A second time were the bears baffled, and by the time they found the footprints of the boy he was far off. They at once started in pursuit, and as the boy began to tire a little the bears gained rapidly on him, until he found that the

only way to escape was to use his third arrow. Taking the shaft from his quiver and fitting it to his bow string, he aimed upward into the air before him and said, "When you come down there shall be about you a copse as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."

The arrow descended, making a hole in the ground as before, and a copse appeared all around it, hiding it from view. The boy at once went down into the hole and away to the edge of the copse, where he ascended to the surface and hid near one of the trees which had sprung up at his command.

The chase was a long one, and in time the boy began to tire and the bears to gain on him, so that he was compelled to take his last arrow, which he fixed to the string of his bow and shot into the air, saying, "When you come down there shall be about you a marsh filled with cat-tails, from the middle of which there shall be a trail; by that shall I escape."

When the arrow descended the boy found himself in the midst of a large marsh, and from his feet forward a trail of firm ground, which enabled him to continue running whilst the bears struggled in the mud and amongst the cat-tails. After a while the bears also found the trail, and renewed their pursuit Of the boy, giving him no opportunity for a moment's rest. As they neared him, the bears shouted, "We are now close upon you, and in a short time we will catch you and kill you!" Then the boy remembered the stone which his sister had given him, and taking it out of his pouch he put it in a strip of buckskin and slung it round several times above his head, then threw it forward on the prairie, saying, "As I sling this it will cause a long high rock to appear, upon

which I shall take refuge." The little stone bounded and rolled along over the ground and suddenly became transformed into a steep, high cliff with a flat top and with many loose stones lying about the edge. As the boy reached the cliff he clambered to the summit and looked over the edge to watch the bears. The bears ran around the base, looking for the boy everywhere, and when they appeared beneath the boy, he began to roll over the large loose stones upon them, killing a great many and breaking the bones and otherwise disabling others. While the unharmed bears, who were even more astonished at what had transpired, went to look at their killed and wounded companions, the boy hastily descended on the opposite side of the cliff and started out in a new direction to escape.

After gazing awhile at their dead and wounded companions the unmaimed bears began to look for the boy, but neither hearing nor seeing him they suspected that he had escaped, and at once began to search for footprints leading away from the rock. When these were found, the bears followed in pursuit until they were almost certain of capturing their enemy.

Now the bears had not eaten anything for a long time, and they began to feel very hungry; but there was nothing in sight that they could devour save the boy, so they tried their utmost to catch him, and were slowly gaining on him when he remembered the blueberries which his sister had given him. These he took from his pouch, and threw them into the air, scattering them far and wide, and said, "When you fall to the ground there shall be blueberries growing everywhere; these will deliver me." When the berries

fell, surely enough there instantly appeared blueberry bushes laden with fruit, which caused the bears to stop. They were so eager to eat that they entirely forgot the boy until they could eat no more; the: then remembered what they had contemplated doing when they first set out. One old bear, observing dissatisfaction among his friends, said, "My brothers, we had better give up the chase; the boy is merely a mystery. Let us stop and live here, for here we shall have sufficient food without digging for it." To this the rest of the bears assented; so here they made their home.