OLD MAN AND THE LYNX

Old Man was travelling round over the prairie, when he saw a lot of prairie-dogs sitting in a circle.  They had built a fire, and were sitting around it.  Old Man went toward them, and when he got near them, he began to cry, and said, “Let me, too, sit by that fire.”  The prairie-dogs said:  “All right, Old Man.  Don’t cry.  Come and sit by the fire.”  Old Man sat down, and saw that the prairie-dogs were playing a game.  They would put one of their number in the fire and cover him up with the hot ashes; and then, after he had been there a little while, he would say sk, sk, and they would push the ashes off him, and pull him out.

Old Man said, “Teach me how to do that”; and they told him what to do, and put him in the fire, and covered him up with the ashes, and after a little while he said sk, sk, like a prairie-dog, and they pulled him out again.  Then he did it to the prairie-dogs.  At first he put them in one at a time, but there were many of them, and pretty soon he got tired, and said, “Come, I will put you all in at once.”  They said, “Very well, Old Man,” and all got in the ashes; but just as Old Man was about to cover them up, one of them, a female heavy with young, said, “Do not cover me up; the heat may hurt my children, which are about to be born.”  Old Man said:  “Very well.  If you do not want to be covered up, you can sit over by the fire and watch the rest.”  Then he covered up all the others.

At length the prairie-dogs said sk, sk, but Old Man did not sweep the ashes off and pull them out of the fire.  He let them stay there and die.  The old she one ran off to a hole and, as she went down in it, said sk, sk.  Old Man chased her, but he got to the hole too late to catch her.  So he said:  “Oh, well, you can go.  There will be more prairie-dogs by and by.”

When the prairie-dogs were roasted, Old Man cut a lot of red willow brush to lay them on, and then sat down and began to eat.  He ate until he was full, and then felt sleepy.  He said to his nose:  “I am going to sleep now.  Watch for me and wake me up in case anything comes near.”  Then Old Man slept.  Pretty soon his nose snored, and he woke up and said, “What is it?” The nose said, “A raven is flying over there.”  Old Man said, “That is nothing,” and went to sleep again.  Soon his nose snored again.  Old Man said, “What is it now?” The nose said, “There is a coyote over there, coming this way.”  Old Man said, “A coyote is nothing,” and again went to sleep.  Presently his nose snored again, but Old Man did not wake up.  Again it snored, and called out, “Wake up, a bob-cat is coming.”  Old Man paid no attention.  He slept on.