Now as the boy looked down, he saw that the earth was far below him, and there were no branches at all on the tree trunk. He could not climb down, so he began to climb from branch to branch after his arrow, and the tree grew higher and higher until it broke through the floor of the Sky Land. Its lower branches were just level with the floor. And only then was the boy able to reach his arrow. Then he pulled it out, and climbed off the branch into the Sky Country.
Now the Sky Country was a great plain, covered lightly with snow. There were no signs of people. He said to himself, “There is no use in wandering aimlessly around in this way. I will set my arrow on end, and follow whichever way it falls.”
Then he did so. He traveled the way the arrow fell and came to some chips which showed him that some people had been there felling a tree. Then he came to some fresher chips. Then he traveled on until he came to a lodge, with a mat door.
Then someone opened the door and he went in. Afterward he became the chickadee.
REDBIRD AND BLACKBIRD
Ojibwa
Once there were two men named Redbird and Blackbird. They had a house on the shore of the lake, and they lived on wild potatoes. They spent all their time digging for wild potatoes, and that was all the food they ever had.
One day Blackbird said to Redbird, “There are great fields of wild rice across the lake. We ought to go and gather it.” So the very next day they crossed the lake and found themselves among large fields of wild rice. They began gathering the rice, then they saw people near by. They went to the people and said, “How do you do?”
The people said, “We have never seen you before.” Blackbird said, “No. We live on the other side of the lake. We live on the wild potatoes we find there.” The people said, “Well, you did right in coming over here. You ought to have good food.”
Then Blackbird and Redbird shook hands all around and went home.