For several days he played the same trick, and the man was very much puzzled to know how it was that one of his beavers always lost its tail before he reached home. At length He-of-the-Little-Shell followed the man home, and when the beavers were unloaded he stepped out and spoke to the man.
The hunter was astonished to see so tiny a fellow. “Is it you who has cut my beavers’ tails?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered He-of-the-Little-Shell.
“I have a mind to kill you!” exclaimed the hunter, angrily.
“Oh, but you could not do it,” said the boy quickly, and before the man could think, he had disappeared.
One day when he came home from the hunt he said to his sister, “The time has come when I must go away from our lodge. I must go to the mountains and live among the rocks and caves. That is my true home, for I am a Pukwudjee,—a little man of the mountains. But,” [!-- original location of illustration --] he added, “I shall not leave you here alone. You shall go to the home you would love best of all. Tell we where it shall be.”
“‘I AM A PUKWUDJEE—A LITTLE MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS,’ HE SAID”
Then the sister answered, “I love the eastern sky best of all. I should love to live there.”