“To the cave of the Big Bear of the mountains,” came the prompt answer.
While Chew-chew and Fleetfoot talked the children played near the cave. Pigeon was playing with stones which she had gathered and tossed into the fire. In trying to get them out again she burned her fingers, and began to cry.
When Chew-chew saw what had happened, she told Fleetfoot to play with Pigeon. And Fleetfoot played with Pigeon, and he showed her how to lift hot stones without getting burned.
The children played and carried hot stones with tongs made of sticks. They ran back and forth between rows of skins until Pigeon dropped a hot stone into the hole.
No sooner had Pigeon dropped the stone than she screamed, “A snake! a snake!” And she ran to her grandmother and sobbed, while she hid her face in her chubby arm.
Chew-chew thought that a snake was crawling about. Fleetfoot helped her look under all the skins. They looked for some time, but they found no trace of a snake.
Then Chew-chew asked Pigeon to tell her all about it. And Pigeon said, “A big snake hissed and made me drop the stone.”
Just then Fleetfoot dropped a hot stone and something went “s-s-s-s-s-s.”
Pigeon screamed again, but a hearty laugh from Chew-chew showed there was nothing to fear. Chew-chew knew that the hissing sound was not the hiss of a snake. It was the sizzling of the water when it touched the hot stone.
And so Chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the hissing sound. She picked up hot stones and dropped them into the water. Each time a stone was dropped, the hissing sound was heard; and the children learned to know the sound, and they were no longer afraid.