There was great perplexity on the part of the parents to know just what to do to impress upon the little ones that they had been very naughty in thus running away, for it was very evident from the utterances of both that they had not considered the matter in that light.  Now, in view of the weariness of Minnehaha, it was decided to leave the matter of discipline in abeyance until a little of the excitement had passed away.

In the meantime Sagastao was ready to talk with everybody about the whole affair.  It seems that he and Minnehaha had decided that Mary was “no good” in telling stories.  He said her stories neither frightened them nor made them cry, but Souwanas was the boss man to tell Nanahboozhoo stories.  He said they got up before anybody was stirring, that morning, and dressed themselves so quietly that nobody heard them.  They remembered the trail along which Souwanas and Jakoos had carried them.  After they had walked for some time they came to where there was a larger trail, and they turned into it, and came upon a lot of dogs that had been chasing some rabbits.  Soon the rabbits got away from the dogs, when they reached those trees that had been chopped down.  Minnehaha was the first to notice that the dogs had turned back, and were coming after them, and she shouted: 

“‘O, look! those dogs think we are rabbits, and they are coming for us!’”

“When I saw they really were coming,” said Sagastao, “Minnehaha and I jumped up on the logs, and we climbed up as high as we could, and I took up a stick, and then I stood up with Minnehaha behind me, and I shook the stick at them, and—­and I shouted: 

“‘A wus, atimuk!’” (Get away, you dogs!)

“They came so near on the logs that I hit one or two of them, while all of the others on the ground kept barking at us.  But I kept shouting back at them, ‘A wus, atimuk!’ My! it was great fun.  Then all at once we heard Jack and Cuffy, and, I tell you! soon there was more fun, when our big dogs sprang at them.  Every time an Eskimo was tackled by Jack or Cuffy he went down, and was soon howling from the way in which he was shaken.  And they had nearly thrashed the whole of them when papa and Kennedy came rushing up.  I wished they had been there sooner, to have seen all the fun.”

Thus the lad’s tongue rattled on, while it was evident he was utterly unconscious of the danger they had been in.

After some deliberation it was decided that, in view of this runaway being the first offense of the kind, the punishment should be confinement to their own room the next day, until six o’clock in the evening, on a diet of bread and water.  At this Mary was simply furious.  She well knew, however, that it was necessary for her to control herself in her master’s and mistress’s presence.  She managed to hold her tongue, but her flashing eyes and an occasional mutter, which would come out as she went about her usual duties, showed the smoldering