[Illustration: 0000]
forest, and leaped inside the log. Then as Oweenee, a little alarmed,
stood there waiting, the figure of a man came out from the other end.
Could this be Osseo? Yes, it was he--but how transformed! No
longer bent and ugly, no longer weak and ailing; but a beautiful
youth---vigorous and straight and tall. His enchantment was at an end.
But the evil spell had not been wholly lifted, after all. As Osseo
approached he saw that a great change was taking place in his loved one.
Her glossy black hair was turning white, deep wrinkles lined her
face; she walked with a feeble step, leaning on a staff. Though he had
regained his youth and beauty, she in turn had suddenly grown old.
"O, my dearest one!" he cried. "The Evening Star has mocked me in
letting this misfortune come upon you. Better far had I remained as I
was; gladly would I have borne the insults and laughter of your people
rather than you should be made to suffer."
"As long as you love me," answered Oweenee, "I am perfectly content. If
I had the choice to make, and only one of us could be young and fair, it
is you that I would wish to be beautiful."
Then he took her in his arms and caressed her, vowing that he loved her
more than ever for her goodness of heart; and together they walked hand
in hand, as lovers do.
When the proud sisters saw what had happened they could scarcely believe
their eyes. They looked enviously at Osseo, who was now far handsomer
than any one of their husbands, and much their superior in every other
way. In his eyes was the wonderful light of the Evening Star, and when
he spoke all men turned to listen and admire him. But the hard-hearted
sisters had no pity for Oweenee. Indeed, it rather pleased them to see
that she could no longer dim their beauty, and to realize that people
would no longer be singing her praises in their jealous ears.
[Illustration: 0000]
The feast was spread, and all made merry but Osseo. He sat like one in
a dream, neither eating nor drinking. From time to time he would press
Oweenee's hand, and speak a word of comfort in her ear. But for the
most part he sat there, gazing through the door of the tent at the
star-besprinkled sky.
Soon a silence fell on all the company. From out of the night, from the
dark, mysterious forest, came the sound of music--a low, sweet music
that was like, yet unlike, the song sung by the thrush in summer
twilight. It was magical music such as none had ever heard, coming, as
it seemed, from a great distance, and rising and falling on the quiet
summer evening. All those at the feast wondered as they listened. And
well they might! For what to them was only music, was to Osseo a voice
that he understood, a voice from the sky itself, the voice of the
Evening Star. These were the words that he heard:
"Suffer no more, my son; for the evil spell is broken, and hereafter no
magician shall work you harm. Suffer no more; for the time has come when
you shall leave the earth and dwell here with me in the heavens. Before
you is a dish on which my light has fallen, blessing it and giving it a
magic virtue. Eat of this dish, Osseo, and all will be well."
So Osseo tasted the food before him, and behold! The tent began to
tremble, and rose slowly into the air; up, up above the tree-tops--up,
up toward the stars. As it rose, the things within it were wondrously
changed. The kettles of clay became bowls of silver, the wooden dishes
were scarlet shells, while the bark of the roof and the poles supporting
it were transformed into some glittering substance that sparkled in
the rays of the stars. Higher and higher it rose. Then the nine proud
sisters and their husbands were all changed into birds. The men became
robins, thrushes and woodpeckers. The sisters were changed into various
birds with bright plumage;
[Illustration: 0000]
the four who had chattered most, whose tongues were always wagging,
now appeared in the feathers of the magpie and bluejay.
Osseo sat gazing at Oweenee. Would she, too, change into a bird, and be
lost to him? The very thought of it made him bow his head with grief;
then, as he looked at her once more, he saw her beauty suddenly
restored, while the color of her garments was the color only to be found
where the dyes of the rainbow are made.
Again the tent swayed and trembled as the currents of the air bore it
higher and higher, into and above the clouds; up, up, up--till at last
it settled gently on the land of the Evening Star.
Osseo and Oweenee caught all the birds, and put them in a great silver
cage, where they seemed quite content in each other's company. Scarcely
was this done when Osseo's father, the King of the Evening Star, came to
greet them. He was attired in a flowing robe, spun from star-dust, and
his long white hair hung like a cloud upon his shoulders.
"Welcome," he said, "my dear children. Welcome to the kingdom in the
sky that has always awaited you. The trials you have passed through
have been bitter; but you have borne them bravely, and now you will be
rewarded for all your courage and devotion. Here you will live happily;
yet of one thing you must beware."
He pointed to a little star in the distance--a little, winking star,
hidden from time to time by a cloud of vapor.
"On that star," he continued, "lives a magician named Wabeno. He has
the power to dart his rays, like so many arrows, at those he wishes to
injure. He has always been my enemy; it was he who changed Osseo into
an old man and cast him down upon the earth. Have a care that his light
does not fall upon you. Luckily, his power for evil has been greatly
weakened; for the friendly clouds have come to my assistance,
[Illustration: 0000]
and form a screen of vapor through which his arrows cannot penetrate."
The happy pair fell upon their knees, and kissed his hands in gratitude.
"But these birds," said Osseo, rising and pointing to the cage. "Is this
also the work of Wabeno, the magician?"
"No," answered the King of the Evening Star. "It was my own power, the
power of love, that caused your tent to rise and bear you hither. It was
likewise by my power that the envious sisters and their husbands were
transformed into birds. Because they hated you and mocked you, and were
cruel and scornful to the weak and the old, I have done this thing. It
is not so great a punishment as they deserve. Here in the silver cage
they will be happy enough, proud of their handsome plumage, strutting
and twittering to their hearts' content. Hang the cage there, at the
doorway of my dwelling. They shall be well cared for."
Thus it was that Osseo and Oweenee came to live in the kingdom of the
Evening Star; and, as the years passed by, the little winking star where
Wabeno, the magician, lived grew pale and paler and dim and dimmer, till
it quite lost its power to harm. Meanwhile a little son had come to make
their happiness more perfect, a charming boy with the dark, dreamy eyes
of his mother and the strength and courage of Osseo.
It was a wonderful place for a little boy to live in--close to the stars
and the moon, with the sky so near that it seemed a kind of curtain for
his bed, and all the glory of the heavens spread out before him. But
sometimes he was lonely, and wondered what the Earth was like--the Earth
his father and mother had come from. He could see it far, far below--
so far that it looked no bigger than an orange; and sometimes he would
stretch out his hands toward it, just as the little children on earth
stretch out their hands for the moon.
[Illustration: 0000]
His father had made him a bow, with little arrows, and this was a great
delight to him. But still he was lonely, and wondered what the little
boys and girls on earth were doing, and whether they would be nice to
play with. The Earth must be a pretty place, he thought, with so many
people living on it. His mother had told him strange stories of that
far-away land, with its lovely lakes and rivers, its great, green
forests where the deer and the squirrel lived, and the yellow, rolling
prairies swarming with buffalo.
These birds, too, in the great silver cage had come from the Earth, he
was told; and there were thousands and thousands just like them, as well
as others even more beautiful that he had never seen at all. Swans
with long, curved necks, that floated gracefully on the waters;
whip-poor-wills that called at night from the woods; the robin
redbreast, the dove and the swallow. What wonderful birds they must be!
Sometimes he would sit near the cage, trying to understand the language
of the feathered creatures inside. One day a strange idea came into his
head. He would open the door of the cage and let them out. Then they
would fly back to Earth, and perhaps they would take him with them. When
his father and mother missed him they would be sure to follow him to the
Earth, and then--
He could not quite see just how it would all end. But he found himself
quite close to the cage, and the first thing he knew he had opened the
door and let out all the birds. Round and round they flew; and now he
was half sorry, and a little afraid as well. If the birds flew back to
Earth, and left him there, what would his grandfather say?
"Come back, come back!" he called.
But the birds only flew around him in circles, and paid no attention to
him. At any moment they might be winging their way to the Earth.
[Illustration: 0000]
"Come back, I tell you!" he cried, stamping his foot and waving his
little bow. "Come back, I say, or I'll shoot you."
Then, as they would not obey him, he fitted an arrow to his bow and let
it fly. So well did he aim that the arrow sped through the plumage of
a bird, and the feathers fell all around. The bird itself, a little
stunned but not much hurt, fell down; and a tiny trickle of blood
stained the ground where it lay. But it was no longer a bird, with an
arrow in its wing; instead, there stood in its place a beautiful young
woman.
Now, no one who lives in the stars is ever permitted to shed blood,
whether it be of man, beast or bird. So when the few drops fell upon
the Evening Star, everything was changed. The boy suddenly found himself
sinking slowly downward, held up by invisible hands, yet ever sinking
closer and closer to the Earth. Soon he could see its green hills and
the swans floating on the water, till at last he rested on a grassy
island in a great lake. Lying there, and looking up at the sky, he could
see the tent descending, too. Down it softly drifted, till it in turn
sank upon the island; and in it were his father and mother, Osseo and
Oweenee--returned to earth, to live once more among men and women and
teach them how to live. For they had learned many things in their life
upon the Evening Star; and the children of Earth would be better for the
knowledge.
As they stood there, hand in hand, all the enchanted birds came
fluttering after, falling and fluttering through the air. Then as each
one touched the Earth, it was no longer a bird they saw, but a human
being. A human being, yet not quite as before; for now they were only
dwarfs, Little People, or Pygmies; Puk-Wudjies, as the Indians called
them. Happy Little People they became, seen only by a few. Fishermen,
they say, would sometimes get a glimpse of them--dancing in the light
of the Evening Star, of a summer night, on the sandy, level beach of the
Great Lake.
[Illustration: 0040]