Brother begged, “Don’t be angry!  Don’t be angry!  Let’s go far away!  I help you all the time!  Don’t be angry!”

Gradually he persuaded the Hunter Brother to forgive him and they started off together toward the “Big Water”—­Lake Tahoe.  On the way the Hunter Brother taught the Little Brother how to shoot with a bow and arrow.  By the time they reached the spot now known as Lakeside both their belts were filled with squirrels that they had shot.

At dusk they built a good fire and when there were plenty of glowing coals, Hunter Brother dug a long hole, and filling it with embers, laid the squirrels in a row on the coals covering them all up with earth.

He was tired and lay down by the fire to rest till the squirrels should be cooked.  With his head resting on his arms, the warmth of the fire soothing him, he soon fell fast, fast asleep.

Little Brother sat by the fire and as the night grew darker, he grew hungrier and hungrier.  He tried to waken his brother, but the latter seemed almost like one dead and he could not rouse him.  At last he made up his mind he would eat by himself.  Going to the improvised oven, he began to dig up the squirrels, counting them as they came to light.  One was missing.  Little Brother was troubled.

    “How that?  My brother had so many, I had so many!”—­counting
    on his fingers—­“One gone!” And he forgot how hungry he was as
    he dug for the missing squirrel.

    All at once he came upon a bigger hole adjoining the cooking
    hole.  While he stood wondering what to do, out popped a great
    big spider.

    “I’ll catch you!” cried the spider.

“No, you won’t!” said the boy, and up he jumped and away he ran, followed by the spider.  They raced over stock and stone, dodging about trees and stumbling over fallen logs for a long time.  At last Little Brother could run no more.  The spider grabbed him and carried him back to his hole, where he killed him.

    It was almost daybreak when Hunter Brother awoke.  He called
    his brother to bring more wood, for the fire was almost out. 
    Getting no answer he went to look at the cooking squirrels.

Greatly surprised to see them lying there all uncovered, he, too, counted them.  Discovering one gone, he thought his brother must have eaten it and was about to eat one himself when he saw the old spider stick his head out of the hole.  Each made a spring, but the Hunter Brother was the quicker and killed the wicked spider with his knife.

Carefully he now went into the spider’s hole.  There, stretched out on the ground, lay Little Brother dead!  Taking him up in his arms, he carried him outside.  Now this Hunter Brother was a medicine-man of great power, so he lay down with Little Brother and breathed into his mouth and in a few minutes he