“I was busy talking and dancing.”
“And now you are punished,” said the other. “It is always so with lazy, careless people. But I will let you have the snake skin. And now go, and by hard work and industry, try to recover your wasted time.”
THE PET RABBIT
A little girl owned a pet rabbit which she loved dearly. She carried it on her back like a babe, made for it a little pair of moccasins, and at night shared with it her own robe.
Now the little girl had a cousin who loved her very dearly and wished to do her honor; so her cousin said to herself:
“I love my little cousin well and will ask her to let me carry her pet rabbit around;” (for thus do Indian women when they wish to honor a friend; they ask permission to carry about the friend’s babe).
She then went to the little girl and said:
“Cousin, let me carry your pet rabbit about on my back. Thus shall I show you how I love you.”
Her mother, too, said to her: “Oh no, do not let our little grandchild go away from our tepee.”