_Lillooet_
Now Glacier lived near the end of Lillooet Lake. This was a long
while ago. Then he decided to marry. Glacier traveled southward
until he reached the sea, and then he followed southward along the
shore until he reached the house of Chinook Wind. Chinook Wind said,
“Yes!” He allowed his daughter to marry Glacier. So Glacier took her
home.
Glacier’s wife was not comfortable. Soon she complained because it
was so cold. She lighted a fire; but Glacier began to melt, so he
put out the fire and threw the wood away. He said to his servants,
“When my wife desires wood for a fire, always give her wet wood, and
never dry.” Chinook’s daughter tried to burn the wet, green wood,
but it gave out no heat. It smoked, also, so that she could not see.
After a long while Chinook’s daughter had a chance to send word to
her relatives. Her brother and many friends came at once to her in a
canoe. When they neared Glacier’s house, they changed to snowflakes
and danced around and above it. Chinook’s daughter saw them. She
said, “The weather is milder. It is snowing. My brother has
arrived.”
Then Glacier made it colder. Much frost was on the trees and Chinook
Wind was driven away. But he came back soon with more friends. They
changed themselves to soft snowflakes and sleet. They danced around
the house. Again Glacier made it colder, so that ice formed on the
trees; but Chinook Wind came back as rain. He began to melt Glacier.
Glacier could only fight him with hail. Then Chinook Wind came back
again, warm and steady and strong. Glacier retreated up the mountain
side, leaving his wife behind.
Chinook’s daughter at once stepped into the canoe with her brother
and his friends, and they paddled again down to Lillooet Lake. Then
her brother turned around and said:
“Henceforth, in this country, it shall be cold and icy only for a
few months each year. Then Chinook Wind will come and drive away the
cold and melt the ice as we have done. The journey we have made this
year shall be made every year.”
And it became so. Then they went home.