Segun looked, but Peboan was gone. She took some flowers from her hair and hid them under the leaves on the ground. There was ice on the leaves, but it did not hurt the pink flowers. Segun breathed on the flowers, and they became sweet.
She said: “I go, but the flowers shall stay to tell of Segun’s visit to Peboan. The children shall find them and know that Segun has sent Peboan away. It shall be so each time the snows melt and the rivers begin to run. This flower shall tell that spring has come.”
Peboan’s tepee was sweet with the breath of the flowers, but Segun was gone.
Why the Dog Cannot Endure the Cat, Nor the Cat the Mouse[21]
Long years ago it was the custom to give the dog all the meat that fell from the master’s table. But one day when all the dogs met in council, one of them said, “It might be a wise plan to have an agreement drawn up for the dogs and their masters to sign.
“Some time,” said he, “one of our masters might drink too much wine, or get into a rage, and forbid us to have the meat. And then what could we do? It is best to be on the safe side,” and he shook his head sagely.
“That is a very good plan,” agreed the other dogs. “Let us carry it out at once.”
So the secretary of the dogs’ council drew up a document and wrote it upon parchment. It stated that all the dogs of every country were entitled to the meat that fell from their masters’ tables. It was a very carefully worded document, and it was written out in the most learned form by the lawyer of the council.
Then the secretary took the parchment, rolled it up and went about the whole land until it had been signed by all the masters of dogs.
The parchment was then given to the King of the Dogs, to be carefully kept.