Away they went full of hope, each feeling that he surely could reach the top.
But soon a fat, pudgy boy came slowly back, and in his hand he held out to the Chief a leaf of cactus.
The Chief smiled and said: "My boy, you did not reach the foot of the mountain; you did not even get across the desert."
Later a second boy returned. He carried a twig of sagebrush.
"Well," said the Chief. "You reached the mountain's foot but you did not climb upward."
The next had a cottonwood spray.
"Good," said the Chief; "You got up as far as the springs."
Another came later with some buckthorn. The Chief smiled when he saw it and spoke thus: "You were climbing; you were up to the first slide rock."
Later in the afternoon, one arrived with a cedar spray, and the old man said: "Well done. You went half way up."
An hour afterward, one came with a switch of pine. To him the Chief said: "Good; you went to the third belt; you made three quarters of the climb."