One day the Raven was flying about, and he saw a girl sitting with her baby in the woods, and he stopped to talk to her.
'That is a fine little boy of yours,' he said, cocking his head on one side.
'Yes, he is,' replied the girl; 'but I wish he was old enough to get food for us. It is so many years to wait.'
'That is easily cured,' said the Raven. 'You have only to bathe him every day in the cold spring at the back of these rocks, and you have no idea how quickly he will grow up.' So the girl bathed him every morning in the pool and let the water from the rock pour over him, and it was surprising how soon he was able to help her in work of all kinds as well as to shoot with his bow and arrows.
'Why are we all alone with grandmother?' he inquired at last, for he was fond of asking questions. 'Did you never have friends like other people, and have those houses over there always stood empty?' Then they told him that once a large tribe had lived at that place, but they had gradually gone away to hunt or to fish and had never come back. Only the woman and the girl and the baby remained behind.
After this the boy was quiet for a time, and for a while he was content to stay at home, only going out in the mornings to bring back a bird from the forest for their dinner. But at length he said to his mother: 'If I could only paddle in the lake, I could catch you fish and water-fowl; but all the canoes here are old and broken.'
'Yes; you must not go out in them. You will get drowned,' answered she, and the boy went sadly to his mat to sleep.
As he slept, his father, whose name was Fire-drill, appeared to him and spoke:
'Take one of those old canoes into the woods and cover it with bushes. It does not matter how worn-out it seems to be; do as I tell you.' Then the boy got up and did as his father bade him, and went home again.