“No,” said he, “they will say I ate him sideways.”
He then went to the hind-quarter.
“No,” said he, “they will say I ate him forward.”
At last, however, seeing that he must begin the attack somewhere, he commenced upon the hind-quarter. He had just got a delicate piece in his mouth when the tree just by began to make a creaking noise, rubbing one large branch against another. This annoyed him.
“Why!” he exclaimed, “I cannot eat when I hear such a noise. Stop, stop!” cried he to the tree.
He was again going on with his meal when the noise was repeated.
“I cannot eat with such a noise,” said he; and, leaving the meal, although he was very hungry, he went to put a stop to the noise. He climbed the tree, and having found the branches which caused the disturbance, tried to push them apart, when they suddenly caught him between them, so that he was held fast. While he was in this position a pack of wolves came near.
“Go that way,” cried Manabozho, anxious to send them away from the neighbourhood of his meat. “Go that way; what would you come to get here?”
The wolves talked among themselves, and said, , “Manabozho wants to get us out of the way. He must have something good here.”
“I begin to know him and all his tricks,” said an old wolf. “Let us see if there is anything.”