DR. BEAR AND MRS. SKUNK.
Once upon a time a father and mother skunk (wah-chelth) were rearing a family of two children and there was no food for them to eat. The old folks were in great distress about what to do as they were all starving. The mother was very anxious for her family, and one day she happened to think of a good plan to secure something to eat. So she announced to her family that she would play sick and have the bear (chee-ur-ra) come and doctor her. Her husband and children were delighted with her plan and Mrs. Skunk warned her children to keep very quiet when Mr. Bear came to doctor her, so she went to bed, feigning to be very ill while Mr. Skunk went after Dr. Bear and found him at home. The Doctor accompanied Mr. Skunk at once to the bedside of his wife and walking into the room began asking Mrs. Skunk about her illness and she replied in a very weak voice, pretending to feel very miserable and asked her children to go to one side of the room and be very quiet as she wanted Dr. Bear to examine her. The children went to one side of the room at once as they had been cautioned by their mother to keep very still, as she was going to throw musk in the Bear’s face and blind him. The Bear began to get things ready to doctor Mrs. Skunk and as he was about ready to examine her the children became very anxious and restless, and began whispering to each other and indulging in a big tete-a-tete, about what a large dinner they were going to have when their mother killed the Bear. They kept whispering so much that the Bear became suspicious of their actions and listened closely and his sharp ears caught a few words of their conversation about what their mother was going to do. He began moving towards the door to make his exit, when the mother Skunk saw that he was about ready to get away and threw the musk with all her might at the Bear’s face but it missed his eyes and he escaped safely. Mrs. Skunk became very angry with her children who had spoiled her plans, by being over anxious and whispering too much. Instead of getting the bear meat as they had anticipated, they both received a good sound thrashing from their mother which taught them a lesson for the future.