On his return home to his hut one day, an Indian discovered that his
venison, which had been hung up to dry, had been stolen. After going
some distance, he met some persons, of whom he inquired if they had seen a
_little, old, white_ man, with a short gun, and accompanied by a small dog
with a bob-tail. They replied in the affirmative; and upon the Indian's
assuring them that the man thus described had stolen his venison, they
desired to be informed how he was able to give such a minute description
of a person whom he had not seen. The Indian answered thus:
"The thief I know is a _little_ man, by his having made a pile of stones
in order to reach the venison from the height I hung it standing on the
ground; that he is an _old_ man, I know by his short steps, which I have
traced over the dead leaves in the woods; that he is a _white_ man, I know
by his turning out his toes when he walks, which an Indian never does; his
gun I know to be short by the mark which the muzzle made by rubbing the
bark of the tree on which it leaned; that his dog is small, I know by his
tracks; and that he has a bob-tail I discovered by the mark of it in the
dust where he was sitting at the time his master was taking down the
meat."