My grandmother lived in our lodge.  She was an old woman with gray hair, and was always working hard.  Whenever there were skins in the lodge she worked at them until they were tanned and ready for use.  Often she used to talk to me, telling me about the old times; how our tribe used to fight with its enemies, and conquer them, and kill them; and how brave the men always were.  She used to tell me that of all things that a man could do, the best thing was to be brave.  She would say to me:  “Your father was a brave man, killed by his enemies when he was fighting.  Your grandfather, too, was brave, and counted many coups; he was a chief, and is looked up to by everyone.  Your other grandfather was killed in a battle when he was a young man.  The people that you have for relations have never been afraid, and you must not be afraid either.  You must always do your best, because you have many relations who have been braves, and chiefs.  You have no father to tell you how you ought to live, so now your other relations must try to help you as much as they can, and advise you what to do.”

[Illustration:  My grandmother lived in our lodge]

She used to tell me of the ancient times, and of things that happened then, of persons who had strong spiritual power, and did wonderful things, and of certain bad persons and animals, who harmed people, and of the old times before the people had bows, when they did not kill animals for food, but lived on roots and berries.  She told me that I must remember all these things, and keep them in my mind.

Sometimes my grandmother had hard pains in her legs, and it hurt her to walk, and when she had these pains she could not go about much, and could not work.  When this happened, sometimes she used to ask me to go down to the stream and fetch her a skin of water; and I would whine, and say to her, “Grandmother, I do not want to carry water; men do not carry water.”  Then she would tell us some story about the bad things that had happened to boys who refused to carry water for their grandmothers; and when I was little these stories frightened me, and I would go for the water.  So perhaps I helped her a little in some things after she was old.  Yet she lived until I was a grown man; and so long as she lived she worked hard; except when she had these pains.

Sometimes my mother and some of her relations would go off and camp together for a long time; and then perhaps they would join a larger camp, and stay with them for a while.  In these larger camps we children had much fun, playing our different games.  We had many of these.  Some, like those I have spoken of, we played in winter, and some we played in summer.  Often the little girls caught some of the dogs, and harnessed them to little travois, and took their baby brothers and sisters, and others of the younger children, and moved off a little way from the camp, and there pitched their little lodges.  The boys went too,