Nothing old or evil can live on the Woman’s Star. Osseo could not return to his mother. He was brave. He made no mourning. He made many friends among the Ojibways.
Oweenee was the daughter of a chief. She was like the red lily that grows on the prairies. She had nine sisters. They were like a field of lilies. Her sisters had each married a great warrior.
Oweenee loved the old and wrinkled Osseo. There was none to cook the deer meat his trembling feet [[182]]brought to his wigwam. She was very sorry for Osseo. Her sisters mocked at her pity for him. Osseo heard them one day. He took courage and asked her to help him bear his sorrows. She became his wife, for she knew his heart was as kind as it was brave.
The chief of the Ojibways made a great feast. The sacred dance was to be danced by all the young braves. Oweenee’s sisters mocked at her again. This is what they said:
“See Oweenee. She is like the young vine that clings to the pine that is black with burning. Osseo is like the pine that the lightning has torn and burned. Oweenee would make him like a young pine. She is blind.
“Osseo, go from us. Leave Oweenee. She is not for you.”
Osseo heard the sisters. His heart was very angry. His eyes looked like the eyes of the wolverine. He looked at Oweenee and then into the sky. He gave a strange war cry and shouted: “Sho-wain-ne-me-shing-nosa!”
This means, “Pity me, my father.”
“Poor old man! he is calling to his father. If he goes back, Oweenee will be the wife of a warrior,” said the sisters.
Osseo crept into a hollow log to hide himself.