As they skimmed along the shore, the deer would see the light and be attracted by it to the shore. This would then make them easy targets, for their bodies would then be outlined on the shore.
Slowly the canoe moved along the shore until Little Black Cloud’s father motioned for him to stop paddling. Placing his paddle in the bottom of the canoe, Little Black Cloud took his bow and arrow and stood waiting. Soon the flash of a pair of eyes was seen and then Little Black Cloud fired.
There was a splash and all was still. They steered the canoe toward the place they had seen the deer and there lay a small buck. This was placed in the canoe and they moved on.
Little Black Cloud shot another deer that night, and then father and son returned to camp to skin and dress the two deer.
The following day they returned to the lake where they had started and were soon paddling down the lake shore for home. Little Black Cloud’s father decided not to stop that evening and so continued paddling swiftly until the friendly fires of the village were in sight. He beached the canoe, and a proud father and a very tired young Indian boy entered the village that night with two fine specimens of deer.
Black Cloud sighed as he lay under the pine. Yes, these were fond memories he had of the days when he was a youth.
But soon he would be doing the same thing his father had done twelve summers ago for when he returned to the village the next day, he did not know that his wife would be waiting for him with a new-born baby son, a boy who would some day paddle swiftly along the lake shore with his father.
THE MIRACLE OF THE PINE GROVE
The drums beat slowly. A cloud of sadness hung over the Iroquois village. People moved slowly about their tasks. Even the pets of the village seemed to have lost their playfulness. The little children were playing quietly at sitting games, rather than the usual noisy running games that they liked so well.
As Little Rock, a young Iroquois warrior, rode into the village with a dead buck slung across his pony, he became suddenly aware of the great feeling of sadness that was upon his village. Instead of hearing the usual gay greetings from the people of the tribe, Little Rock noticed that when he looked at them they would shake their heads and turn slowly away. Little Rock feared that great trouble had come and wanted to know what it was. So he dug his heels into his pony’s sides and sped toward his father’s wigwam. As he drew near, he saw a number of people gathered close to the entrance. The drums boomed slowly and sadly. As Little Rock came nearer his friend, Little Red Cloud, stopped him.