“I think I hear him moving now, and also puffing a little.”

“You hear aright, Dagaeoga.  Tododaho has whispered to him, even as I said, and he is going into his den which I know is snug and warm, in the very thickest part of the windrow.  Now he is lying down in it with the logs and branches about him, and soon he will be asleep, dreaming happy dreams of tender roots and wild honey with no stings of bees to torment him.”

“You grow quite poetical, Tayoga.”

“Although foes are hunting us, I feel the spirit of the forest and of peace strong upon me, Dagaeoga.  Moreover, Tododaho, as I told you, has whispered to the animals that we are not to be feared tonight.  Hark to the tiny rustling just beyond the log against which we lie!”

“Yes, I hear it, and what do you make of it, Tayoga?”

“Rabbits seeking their nests.  They, too, have snuffed about, noticing the man odor, which man himself cannot detect, and once they started away in alarm, but now they are reassured, and they have settled themselves down to sleep in comfort and security.”

“Tayoga, you talk well and fluently, but as I have told you before, you talk out of a dictionary.”

“But as I learned my English out of a dictionary I cannot talk otherwise.  That is why my language is always so much superior to yours, Dagaeoga.”

“I’ll let it be as you claim it, you boaster, but what noise is that now?  I seem to hear the light sound of hoofs.”

The Onondaga raised himself to his full height and peered over the dense masses of trunks and boughs, his keen eyes cutting the thick dusk.  Then he sank back, and, when he replied, his voice showed distinct pleasure.

“Two deer have come into a little open space, around which the arms of the windrow stretch nearly all the way, and they have crouched there, where they will rest, indifferent to the nearness of the bear.  Truly, O Dagaeoga, we have come into the midst of a happy family, and we have been accepted, for the night, as members of it.”

“It must be so, Tayoga, because I see a figure much larger than that of the deer approaching.  Look to the north and behold that shadow there under the trees.”

“I see it, Dagaeoga.  It is the great northern moose, a bull.  Perhaps he has wandered down from Canada, as they are rare here.  They are often quarrelsome, but the bull is going to take his rest, within the shelter of the windrow, and leave its other people at peace.  Now he has found a good place, and he will be quiet for the night.”

“Suppose you sleep a while, Tayoga.  You have done all the watching for a long time, and, as I’m fit and fine now, it’s right for me to take up my share of the burden.”

“Very well, but do not fail to awaken me in about three hours.  We must not be caught here in the morning by the warriors.”