When they got there, they told their father what the other children had done to them, and this made the chief very angry.  He thought for a little while, and then got up and went out of the lodge, and called aloud, so that everybody might hear, saying:  “Listen! listen!  Your children have teased my child and made her cry.  Now we will move away, and leave them behind.  If they come back before we get started, they shall be killed.  If they follow us and overtake the camp, they shall be killed.  If the father and mother of any one of them take them into their lodge, I will kill that father and mother.  Hurry now, hurry and pack up, so that we can go.  Everybody tear down the lodges, as quickly as you can.”

When the people heard this, they felt very sorry, but they had to do as the chief said; so they tore down the lodges, and quickly packed the dog travois, and started off.  They packed in such a hurry that they left many little things lying in camp,—­knives and awls, bone needles and moccasins.

The little children played about in the sand for a long time, but at last they began to get hungry; and one little girl said to the others, “I will go back to the camp, and get some dried meat and bring it here, so that we may eat.”  And she started to go to the camp.  When she came to the top of the hill and looked across the river, she saw that there were no lodges there, and did not know what to think of it.  She called down to the children, and said, “The camp has gone”; but they did not believe her, and went on playing.  She kept on calling, and at last some of them came to her, and then all, and saw that it was as she had said.  They went down to the river, and crossed it, and went to where the lodges had stood.  When they got there, they saw on the ground the things that had been left out in packing; and as each child saw and knew something that had belonged to its own parents, it cried and sang a little song, saying:  “Mother, here is your bone needle; why did you leave your children?” “Father, here is your arrow; why did you leave your children?” It was very mournful, and they all cried.

There was among them a little girl who had on her back her baby brother, whom she loved dearly.  He was very young, a nursing child, and already he was hungry and beginning to fret.  This little girl said to the others:  “We do not know why they have gone, but we know they have gone.  We must follow the trail of the camp, and try to catch up with them.”  So the children started to follow the camp.  They travelled on all day; and just at night they saw, near the trail, a little lodge.  They had heard the people talk of a bad old woman who killed and ate persons, and some of the children thought that this old woman might live here; and they were afraid to go to the lodge.  Others said:  “Perhaps some person lives here who has a good heart.  We are very tired and very hungry and have nothing to eat and no place to keep warm.  Let us go to this lodge.”