The old woman who had pitied the children, when she heard what the chief had ordered, made up a bundle of dried meat, and hid it in the grass near the camp.  Then she called her dog to her,—­a little curly dog.  She said to the dog:—­

“Now listen.  To-morrow when we are ready to start, I will call you to come to me, but you must pay no attention to what I say.  Run off, and pretend to be chasing squirrels.  I will try to catch you, and if I do so, I will pretend to whip you; but do not follow me.  Stay behind, and when the camp has passed out of sight, chew off the strings that bind those children; and when you have done this, show them where I have hidden that food.  Then you can follow the camp and catch up to us.”  The dog stood before the old woman, and listened to all that she said, turning his head from side to side, as if paying close attention.

Next morning it was done as the chief had said.  The children were tied to the tree with raw hide strings, and the people tore down all the lodges and moved off.  The old woman called her dog to follow her, but he was digging at a gopher hole and would not come.  Then she went up to him and struck at him hard with her whip, but he dodged and ran away, and then stood looking at her.  Then the old woman got very mad and cursed him, but he paid no attention; and finally she left him, and followed the camp.  When the people had all passed out of sight, the dog went to the children, and gnawed the strings which tied them, until he had bitten them through.  So the children were free.

Then the dog was glad, and danced about and barked and ran round and round.  Pretty soon he came up to the little girl, and looked up in her face, and then started away, trotting.  Every little while he would stop and look back.  The girl thought he wanted her to follow him.  She did so, and he took her to where the bundle of dried meat was, and showed it to her.  Then, when he had done this, he jumped up on her, and licked the baby’s face, and then started off, running as hard as he could along the trail of the camp, never stopping to look back.  The girl did not follow him.  She now knew that it was no use to go to the camp again.  Their parents would not receive them, and the chief would perhaps order them to be killed.

She went on her way, carrying her little brother and the bundle of dried meat.  She travelled for many days, and at last came to a place where she thought she would stop.  Here she built a little lodge of poles and brush, and stayed there.  One night she had a dream, and an old woman came to her in the dream, and said to her, “To-morrow take your little brother, and tie him to one of the lodge poles, and the next day tie him to another, and so every day tie him to one of the poles, until you have gone all around the lodge and have tied him to each pole.  Then you will be helped, and will no more have bad luck.”

When the girl awoke in the morning, she remembered what the dream had told her, and she bound her little brother to one of the lodge poles; and each day after this she tied him to one of the poles.  Each day he grew larger, until, when she had gone all around the lodge, he was grown to be a fine young man.