A few days later little Luke went up into the woods again. As he walked
along the trail, he heard Father Mit-chee drumming. He knew where the
drumming log was, so he went over to it and sat down on one end.
"Father Mit-chee," said he, when the old partridge had finished, "I
noticed a queer thing about your drumming. One day I heard Old John
pounding on a canoe he was building. At a distance your drumming sounded
just like his pounding. Why was that?"
"Well," said Father Mit-chee, "I suppose it was because Grandfather
Mit-chee, the first partridge, was a canoe builder. When he stopped
building canoes he kept up his drumming."
"Tell me about it, please," said the little boy.
"All right,' said Father Mit-chee, and he began this story.
* * * * *
"In the olden days, Mit-chee the Partridge was the canoe builder for all
the birds. Once upon a time they all came together on the bank of the
river, and each one got into his own bark. Truly that was a fine sight
to see!
[Illustration]
"Kit-chee the Great Eagle paddled off first, using the ends of his broad
wings. After him went Ko-ko-ka the Owl; Kusk the Crane; Wee-so-wee the
Bluebird; and Chip-sis the Blackbird. Even tiny A-la-moo the Humming
Bird had a neat little boat. But his wings were so small that Mit-chee
had made for him a dainty little paddle. Some of the birds thought it
rather too large, for it was almost an inch long. So the fleet of canoes
stood bravely out to sea, and after a pleasant voyage returned safely to
land.
"Now the partridge had not taken part in the voyage, for he had built no
canoe for himself. 'It's great sport,' said the other birds, on their
return. 'Why didn't you build a canoe for yourself?' But Mit-chee only
looked wise and drummed upon the log on which he was sitting, and the
sound was the sound of one making a canoe.'
"But the birds kept asking him to build a canoe for himself and join
them. At last he remarked that he was about to do so, and that when he
had finished it, it would be a wonder, something new such as no eye had
ever before beheld.
"Then he went off into the woods by himself and was seen no more for
several days. When he came back, he invited all the birds to come and
see his wonderful canoe,--one he had built for himself on an entirely
new plan.
"Now Mit-chee had reasoned that if a boat having two ends could be rowed
in two ways, one which was all ends (that is, round) could be rowed in
every direction. So he had made a canoe exactly like a nest, perfectly
round. When the honest feathered folk saw this, they were greatly amazed
and wondered that so simple a thing had not occurred to all of them.
"But when Mit-chee got into his new canoe and began to paddle, their
wonder turned into amusement, for he made no headway at all. However
hard he worked, the canoe simply turned round and round.
"After wearying himself, and all in vain, he went ashore, and flew off
far inland. There he hid himself for shame under the low bushes in the
woods, and there he has lived ever since. But at certain seasons, when
he thought no one was looking, he would get upon a dead log and drum
with his wings, and the sound was like the sound which he used to make
when he was building canoes.
"And so his children have always done since that day."
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