Then he lifted her once more and set her in the top of a plum-tree, and going below, cried up to her, “Leap, little Wind-wife, and let me see that you have courage!”
Katipah looked long over the deep space that lay between them, and trembled. Then she fixed her eyes fast upon those of her lover, and leapt, for in the laughter of his eyes she had lost all her fear.
He caught her halfway in air as she fell. “You are not really brave,” said he; “if I had shut my eyes you would not have jumped.”
“If you had shut your eyes just then,” cried Katipah, “I would have died for fear.”
He set her once more in the treetop, and disappeared from her sight. “Come down to me, Katipah!” she heard his voice calling all round her.
Clinging fast to the topmost bough, “Oh, Gamma-gata,” she cried, “let me see your eyes, and I will come.”
Then with darkened brow he appeared to her again out of his blasts, and took her in his arms and lifted her down a little sadly till her feet touched safe earth. And he blew away the beautiful veil of blossoms with which he had showered her, while Katipah stood like a shamed child and watched it go, shredding itself to pieces in the spring sunshine.
And Gamma-gata, kissing her tenderly, said: “Go home, Katipah, and learn to have courage! and when you have learned it I will be faithful and will return to you again. Only remember, however long we may be parted, and whatever winds blow ill-fortune up to your door, Gamma-gata will watch over you. For in deed and truth you are the wife of the West Wind now, and truly he loves you, Katipah!”
“Oh, Gamma-gata!” cried Katipah, “tell the other winds, when they come, to blow courage into me, and to blow me back to you; and do not let that be long!”
“I will tell them,” said Gamma-gata; and suddenly he was gone. Katipah saw a drift of white petals borne over the treetops and away to sea, and she knew that there went Gamma-gata, the beautiful windy youth who, loving her so well, had made her his wife between the showers of the plum-blossom and the sunshine, and had promised to return to her as soon as she was fit to receive him.