“I wonder where he’s gone now?” said the younger one, going to the door-way and looking out.  Suddenly she noticed the little line of flour trailing off through the woods.  “Ah, now I’ll find him!” And just calling to her sister that she would be back soon, she darted off.

It was dark when she came back weeping.  She threw herself on the ground outside the campoodie and poured out her story.  She had found the old man lying there fast asleep, gorged with fish.  The remnants of his feast lay all about him.  She had not dared to waken him or speak to him, but coming home, had made up her mind to run away and not work for the mean old man any more.

    To this the sister agreed, and at daybreak they were scurrying
    off through the forest.

    All day they traveled and when night came they were still in
    the wilds far from any Indian camp.

    Worn out, they lay down under a great pine and looked up at
    the stars.

    “Oh,” said the older girl, “see that fine Star-man up there! 
    I’d like to marry him!”

    “Oh, no!” said the younger, “he belongs to me.  I’d like to
    marry him!”

They lay there telling what each would do could she only marry the Star-man, until they fell asleep.  When they awoke in the morning, lo, they found themselves up in the sky, and the elder girl had a baby already—­a star-baby!  At first the girls were very good to the star-baby but it cried a great deal.  One day the younger girl was very cross and put it outside of the campoodie.  The poor baby cried all the more until the elder sister took pity on it, but when she had fed it and it still cried, the younger sister became very angry and told her sister to put that “brat” outside.  The sister was tired too, so she put the poor baby outside.

When the baby could not make them come to him, he got up and went to find his grandfather, the Moon.  He told him how mean his mother and aunt were to him.  The old Moon was very angry.  He took the star-baby by the hand and went tramping back through the sky to find the cruel mother and her sister.

Now, the girls had been getting rather tired of their sky-campoodie and they longed for their home on the earth.  They used to go to a hole in the sky and look down on the earth, wishing they were there again.  Indeed, at the time the star-baby went off to find his grandfather, the Moon, they were at the hole in the sky, amusing themselves by looking through and indulging in vain regrets that they were no longer there.

    “Oh, sister,” suddenly said the elder, “there goes our old
    grandfather!  Poor old man!  I wish we were with him!  See, he’s
    carrying big bags of wild wheat-flour and acorns!”