“Certainly, friend; just get upon my back and I will carry you to safety,” replied Porcupine.
Beaver did as he was told, and was taken to the top of a very tall tree and left to himself. He did not know how to climb and was afraid to try to get down alone.
BEAVER AND PORCUPINE
He took him to a tall stump in the very middle of the lake and there he left him.
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“Oh, do help me down!” he cried; but it was of no use to beg. After staying up there so long that he grew dizzy and almost starved to death, he finally contrived to scramble down the tree; and they say that is why the bark of trees is rough and full of scratches to this day. We are also told that it is on account of this happening that people who have loved each other very much sometimes quarrel, and are no longer friends.
MOUNTAIN DWELLER
Two sisters belonging to a well-known family one day became very hungry and helped themselves to some of their mother’s fat meat, notwithstanding the girls were strictly forbidden to eat anything between meals.
When the mother found it out she was angry, especially with her elder daughter, for the younger was still a child. She not only scolded the girl, but slapped her severely. At last she said: “Since you are so fond of eating, you had better go and marry Mountain Dweller!”
Now Mountain Dweller is a being who lives alone upon the mountains and is supposed to be a great hunter. Up to this time, no mortal had ever seen him. The girls were more deeply offended by her words than by the blows she had given the elder, and that night when their mother slept they ran off into the woods.