Cloud Catcher and the girl played in the fields all day while the sun was off on his journeys. He shot at the stars, and sometimes hit one so hard that it let go and fell down through the sky. The moon maiden had a great bow that she hung in the sky at night and played with in the daytime. She could shoot farther than Cloud Catcher, but she never hurt anything with her arrows. [[213]]
One day the boy went to the great sun chief and said: “I used to eat much when in my father’s wigwam. I am hungry for meat; will you give me some?”
“You children of the ground are very strange in your ways,” said the sun chief. “You have all the sky to make you happy, but now you are crying for meat. It is not wise, but you shall have it, for you are one of us, and whatever you ask must be given. Come with me.”
The sun chief took Cloud Catcher the next day, and they walked to a place where the sky was open. They looked down on the ground, and the chief shot one of his arrows. It struck a little child, who fell down and was carried into her father’s wigwam.
“Send meat and the child shall be well,” said the sun chief. Meat was put on the fire and burned, and as it burned it came up to Cloud Catcher’s feet, and he ate it like a hungry man. The child walked out of the wigwam, for it was now well, and Cloud Catcher had his meat. After that feast he wanted to walk many times with the sun to the place where the sky was broken, and every time he asked for meat.
One day he said: “I will go back to my own country; there my arrows will bring my meat to me, and no one will need to be sick.”
The moon maiden said: “You are going back to sickness, to cold, and to war, but you belong to me and must never take a wife from your people. Come,” and [[214]]again they moved through the air like birds. She took him back to his bed of moss, and when he awoke this time he found his father standing by him.
“I have seen a manitou; I am to be called Cloud Catcher,” said the boy, as his father took his hand and led him into their wigwam. His mother was glad to see him and very proud of his name.
“You are tall; you are strong and brave. There is no one in the tribe like you. Where have you been?” asked the mother. The boy told only a little, for it seemed like a foolish dream, and he was afraid no one would believe him.
“I fasted many days, my father; then I ate strange food that came to me. I am a man now. My mother is wise; she will not ask any more,” and Cloud Catcher kept very quiet with his tongue.