That was the way little Luke came to know Father Mit-chee.
XXIII. THE STORY OF THE FIRST PARTRIDGE
"Father Mit-Chee," said little Luke one day as the two were sitting together on the drumming log, "can't you tell me a story?"
"Why, yes," said Father Mit-chee, "I suppose I might, I might tell you the story of the first partridge."
Long, long ago an Indian was hunting in the woods. As he went along, he heard a noise as of people jumping and dancing on hard ground. "That is queer," said he to himself. "I will go and see what is going on."
So he turned his steps in the direction of the sound, and went on through the forest swiftly but silently. Though at the first the noise had seemed to come from a place near at hand, it was a long time before he came in sight of the dancers. They were a man and a woman, and they were jumping and dancing about a tree, in the top of which was Hes-puns the Raccoon.
Now all three of them, the raccoon as well as the man and woman, were magicians. The man and the woman were enemies to the other, and as their magic was stronger than his, he had turned himself into a raccoon to escape them.
