“What has happened to you? Where did you go?” she asked.
“Nowhere,” said the little partridges.
“Who did this?” asked Old Partridge.
“Wiske-djak came along,” said the littlest one. “He asked us a lot of questions, and then he asked us our names. When I told him my name, he said, ‘Well, what could you frighten?’ and threw mud all over us.”
Old Partridge was angry. She cleaned up the children, and washed them and dried them, and gave them their supper. Then she asked them which way Wiske-djak had gone, and she went straight on his trail.
Old Partridge tracked Wiske-djak to the high mountain. Then she kept right on until she reached the high, rocky cliff. There lay Wiske-djak, fast asleep. Old Partridge went close to him, on the upper side of the rock. She spread her wings, went close to his ears, and flapped her wings and gave her warwhoop. Wiske-djak waked up so suddenly he could only see that something terrible was whooping right above him. He moved backward and fell right over the edge of the cliff.
“Well,” said Old Partridge, “now you know what ‘suddenly frightened’ means.”
WISKE-DJAK AND GREAT BEAVER
Algonquin
Wiske-djak was traveling about, looking for adventures. He never succeeded in anything he tried to do, and he was always hungry. In his travels he came to Turn-back Lake. White men call it Dumoine Lake. He had no canoe, but he was a good swimmer, yet when he came to Turn-back Lake, he found it too broad to swim. Therefore he started to walk around it.