moved.  Here was a watcher.  Could he kill him and get away?  He sat and waited to see what would happen, for he knew where his enemy was, but the enemy knew nothing of him.  The great moon rose over the eastern prairie and climbed high and began to travel across the sky.  Seven Persons swung around and pointed downward.  It was about the middle of the night.  At length the person in the bush grew tired of watching; he thought no enemy could be near and he rose and stretched out his arms and yawned, but even as he stood an arrow pierced him through, beneath the arms.  He gave a loud cry and tried to run, but another arrow struck him, and he fell.

And now from out the camp rushed the warriors toward the sound, but even as they came Mika’pi had taken the scalp from his enemy and started to run away into the darkness.  The moon was bright, and close behind him were the Snakes.  He heard arrows flying by him, and presently one passed through his arm.  He pulled it out and threw it from him.  Another struck his leg, and he fell, and a great shout arose from the Snakes.  Now their enemy was down and revenge for the two lives lately taken was certain.

But Mika’pi’s helpers were not far off.  It was at the very verge of a high cut wall overhanging the river that Mika’pi fell, and even as the Snakes shouted he rolled over the brink into the dark rushing water below.  The Snakes ran along the edge of the river, looking into the water, with bent bows watching for the enemy’s head or body to appear, but they saw nothing.  Carefully they looked along the shores and sandbars; they did not find him.

Mika’pi had sunk deep in the water.  The swift current carried him along, and when he rose to the surface he was beyond his enemies.  For some time he floated on, but the arrow in his leg pained him and at last he crept out on a sandbar.  He managed to draw the arrow from his leg, and finding at the edge of the bar a dry log, he rolled it into the water, and keeping his hands on it, drifted down the river with the current.  Cold and stiff from his wounds, he crept out on the bank and lay down in the warm sunshine.  Soon he fell asleep.

When he awoke the sun was in the middle of the sky.  His leg and arm were swollen and pained him, yet he started to go home, and for a time struggled onward; but at last, tired and discouraged, he sat down.

“Ah,” he said to himself, “true were the signs!  How crazy I was to go against them!  Now my bravery has been useless, for here I must stop and die.  The widows will still mourn, and who will care for my father and mother in their old age?  Pity me now, O Sun; help me, O Great Above Person!  Give me life!”

Something was coming through the brush near him, breaking the sticks as it walked.  Was it the Snakes following his trail?  Mika’pi strung his bow and drew his arrows from the quiver.  He waited.

No, it was not a Snake; it was a bear, a big grizzly bear, standing there looking down at Mika’pi.  “What is my brother doing here?” said the bear.  “Why does he pray for life?”