|A BOY remarkable for the smallness of his stature lived alone with his
sister in a little lodge on a lake shore. Around their habitation were
scattered many large rocks, and it had a very wild and out-of-the-way
look.
The boy grew no larger as he advanced in years, and yet, small as he
was, he had a big spirit of his own and loved dearly to play the master
in the lodge. One day in winter he told his sister to make him a ball to
play with, as he meant to have some sport along the shore on the clear
ice. When she handed him the ball, his sister cautioned him not to go
too.
He laughed at her and posted off in high glee, throwing his ball before
him and running after it at full speed; and he went as fast as his ball.
At last the ball flew to a great distance, and he after it. When he had
run forward for some time, he saw what seemed four dark spots upon the
ice straight before him.
When he came up to the shore he was surprised to see four large, tall
men lying on the ice, spearing fish. They were four brothers, who looked
exactly alike.
As the little boy-man approached them, the nearest looked up, and in his
turn was surprised to see such a tiny being. Turning to his brothers, he
said:
"Tia! look! see what a little fellow is here."
The three others thereupon looked up, too, and seeing these four faces,
as alike as if they had been one, the little spirit or boy-man said to
himself:
"Four in one! What a time they must have in choosing their
hunting-shirts!"
After they had all stared for a moment at the boy, they covered their
heads, intent in searching for fish. The boy thought to himself:
"These four-faces fancy that I am to be put off without notice because I
am so little and they are so broad and long. They shall find out. I may
find a way to teach them that I am not to be treated so lightly."
After the men were covered up, the boy-man, looking sharply about, saw
that among them they had caught one large trout, which was lying just by
their side. Stealing along, he slyly seized it, and placing his fingers
in the gills and tossing his ball before him, he ran off at full speed.
They heard the pattering of his little steps upon the ice, and when the
four looked up all together, they saw their fine trout sliding away at a
great rate, as if of itself, the boy being so small that he could not be
distinguished from the fish.
"See!" they cried out, "our fish is running away on the dry land!"
When they stood up they could just see, over the fish's head, that it
was the boy-man who was carrying it off.
The little spirit reached the lodge, and having left the trout at the
door, he told his sister to go out and bring in the fish he had brought
home.
She exclaimed, "Where could you have got it? I hope you have not stolen
it. '7
"Oh," he replied, "I found it on the ice. It was caught in our lake.
Have we no right to a little lake of our own? I shall claim all the fish
that come out of its waters."
"How," the sister asked again, "could you have got it there?"
"No matter," said the boy; "go and cook it."
It was as much as the girl could do to drag the great trout within
doors. Then she cooked it, and its flavor was so delicious that she
asked no more questions as to how he had come by it.
The next morning the little spirit or boy-man set off as he had the day
before.
He made all sorts of sport with his ball as he frolicked along--high
over his head he would toss it; straight up into the air; then far
before him; and again, in mere merriment of spirit, he would send it
bounding back, as if he had plenty of speed and enough to spare in
running back after it. And the ball leaped and bounced about and glided
through the air as if it were a live thing, enjoying the sport as much
as the boy-man himself.
When he came within hail of the four large men, who were fishing there
every day, he cast his ball with such force that it rolled into the
ice-hole about which they were busy. The boy, standing on the shore of
the lake, called out:
"Four-in-one, pray hand me my ball."
"No, indeed," they answered, setting up a grim laugh which curdled
their four dark faces all at once, "we will not"; and with their
fishing-spears they thrust the ball under the ice.
"Good!" said the boy-man, "we shall see."
Saying which he rushed upon the four brothers and thrust them at one
push into the water. His ball bounded back to the surface, and, picking
it up, he ran off, tossing it before him in his own sportive way.
Outstripping it in speed, he soon reached home and remained within till
the next morning.
The four brothers, rising up from the water at the same time, dripping
and wroth, roared out in one voice a terrible threat of vengeance, which
they promised to execute the next day. They knew the boy's speed, and
that they could by no means overtake him.
Betimes in the morning, the four brothers were stirring in their lodge
and getting ready to look after their revenge.
Their old mother, who lived with them, begged them not to go.
"Better," said she, "now that your clothes are dry, to think no more of
the ducking, than to go and all four of you get your heads broken, as
you surely will; for that boy is a monedo or he could not perform such
feats as he does."
Her sons, however, paid no heed to this wise advice. Raising a great
war-cry, which frightened the birds overhead nearly out of their
feathers, they started for the boy's lodge among the rocks.
The little spirit or boy-man heard them roaring forth their threats as
they approached, but he did not appear to be disquieted in the least.
His sister as yet had heard nothing; after a while she thought she
could distinguish the noise of snowshoes on the snow, at a distance, but
rapidly advancing. She looked out, and seeing the four large men
coming straight to their lodge she was in great fear. Running in, she
exclaimed:
"He is coming, four times as strong as ever!" for | she supposed that
the one man whom her brother had offended had become so angry as to make
four of himself in order to wreak his vengeance.