"How can you think of eating at such a time?" she replied.
"Do as I request you, and be quick."
She then gave the little spirit his dish, and he commenced eating.
Just then the brothers came to the door.
"See!" cried the sister, "the man with four heads!"
The brothers were about to lift the curtain at the door, when the
boy-man turned his dish upside down, and immediately the door was closed
with a stone. The four brothers set to work upon this and hammered with
their clubs with great fury, until at length they succeeded in making
a slight opening. One of the brothers presented his face at this little
window and rolled his eye about at the boy-man in a very threatening
way.
The little spirit, who, when he had closed the door, had returned to his
meal and gone on quietly eating, took up his bow and arrow which lay by
his side, and let fly the shaft. It struck the man in the head, and he
fell back. The boy-man merely called out, "Number one," as he fell, and
went on with his meal.
In a moment a second face, just like the first, presented itself; and as
he raised his bow, his sister said to him:
"What is the use? You have killed that man already."
Little spirit fired his arrow--the man fell--he called out, "Number
two," and continued his meal.
The two others of the four brothers were despatched in the same quiet
way and counted off as "Number three" and "Number four."
After they were all well disposed of in this way, the boy-man directed
his sister to go ont and see them. She presently ran back, saying:
"There are four of them."
"Of course," the boy-man answered, "and there always shall be four of
them."
Going out himself, the boy-man raised the brothers to their feet, and
giving each a push, one with his face to the East, another to the West,
a third to the South, and the last to the North, he sent them off to
wander about the earth; and whenever you see four men just alike, they
are the four brothers whom the little spirit or boy-man despatched upon
their travels.
But this was not the last display of the boy-man's power.
When spring came on, and the lake began to sparkle in the morning sun,
the boy-man said to his sister: "Make me a new set of arrows and a
bow." Although he provided for their support, the little spirit never
performed household or hard work of any kind, and his sister obeyed.
When she had made the weapons, which, though they were very small,
were beautifully wrought and of the best stuff the field and wood could
furnish, she again cautioned him not to shoot into the lake.
"She thinks," said the boy-man to himself, "I can see no farther into
the water than she. My sister shall learn better."
Regardless of her warnings, he on purpose discharged a shaft into the
lake and waded out into the water till he got to its depth. Then he
paddled about for his arrow, so as to call the attention of his sister,
as if to show that he hardily braved her advice.
She hurried to the shore, calling on him to return; but instead of
heeding her, he cried out:
"You of the red fins, come and swallow me!" Although his sister did not
clearly understand whom her brother was addressing, she too called out:
"Don't mind the foolish boy!"
The boy-man's order seemed to be best attended to, for immediately a
monstrous fish came and swallowed him. Before disappearing entirely,
catching a glimpse of his sister standing in despair upon the shore, the
boy-man hallooed out to her:
"Me-zush-ke-zin-ance!"
She wondered what he meant. At last it occurred to her that it must be
an old moccasin. She accordingly ran to the lodge, brought a moccasin,
tied it to a string attached to a tree, and quickly cast it into the
water.