“Why are you so mad?” asked Tcûskai. “I will get those things back; they are over there under the rocks.”
It was near daylight; Tcûskai was freezing to death. Tskel made a fire and told him to lie down near it and get warm. Then he made himself a bark blanket. When Tcûskai was warm, his brother said: “Now you must get back the things you gave to Gopher.”
Tcûskai ran to the rock and looked into the hole; he thought it was awful deep, but he ran back, and said: “The hole isn’t deep; we can build a fire and drive Gopher out.”
“I want my blanket,” said Tskel; “maybe you can crawl in and get it.”
The mountain was Gopher’s house. The rocks were only [[290]]the roof of it. Tcûskai saw his brother’s belt, but he was afraid to go and get it. Tskel said: “Make a fire and blow the smoke into the hole. How long can you fan the fire without getting tired?”
“I can fan it till Gopher comes out,” said Tcûskai.
“But there are many holes,” said his brother. “You will have lots of trouble. Do you think you can fill the holes with stones?”
“I can fill them quickly,” said Tskel. He ran around, threw stones into the holes, then came back and blew the fire. But the smoke came out through other holes, and Tskel said: “Go and stop up every hole you can find.”
Tskel, to make Tcûskai sorry for what he had done, hid all the water in a hole where he couldn’t find it. Little Tcûskai got very thirsty. He ran from one spring to another but couldn’t find water; then he knew that his brother had hidden it and he said: “I want some water.”
“You can’t have any until you have killed Gopher,” said Tskel. “When he is dead, I will give you some.”