"Gluskap led the way straight up the side of the steep hill. There, on the other side, stood a great lodge of poles and bark, surrounded by several hundred men, thousands of animals, and great flocks of birds settling down and flying up and lighting again. The white bear gazed at the scene in astonishment. There stood wolves and caribou side by side, and hares and wild-cats lay together on the snow.
"'Why don't they fight?' he asked. 'Why don't the bears and wolves eat the silly little men and the fat hares and beavers?'
"'No need of it,' said the wolf. 'It is easier to eat Gluskap's food.'
"Now they halted at the edge of the crowd. They saw Gluskap walk into his great lodge. Soon he came out with a basket in one hand. He walked among the men and animals, scattering on every side something that looked like sand. The moment those little grains touched the ground, each one became a piece of food. A grain that dropped in front of a beaver became a juicy fragment of pond-lily root. The grains that fell before the caribou turned into bundles of caribou-moss. The grains that fell near the bears and wolves and men became meat and fish of many kinds. Well, it was the most wonderful thing that the white bear had ever dreamed of; and when he suddenly found a big, fresh salmon and a lump of beaver flesh under his very nose, he was too happy to do anything but eat and eat."
Old Squat-by-the-fire ceased her story-telling, leaned back against a heap of robes and blankets, and closed her eyes.
"Did Gluskap make all the food out of sand?" asked Flying Plover.
"Yes. Now you must go to bed, little son of a chief."
"Did King Bear stay with Gluskap?"
"Yes. Go to bed now, Flying Plover."
"Didn't he ever go back to his own country?"