turned to stone; but when the frog put out its claws to fasten them in
his shoulders, fear gave him wings, and he ran so fast that the frog
could not reach him, and returned to the lake. On and on ran the poor
little boy, till at last he found himself outside the woods where his
grandmother and the chief's daughter were waiting for him. Then he sat
still and rested; but he was very hungry, for all this time he had had
nothing to eat, and the grandmother and the chief's daughter had had
nothing to eat either.
[Illustration: HOW THE BOY SHOT THE WHITE BEAR.]
* * * * *
'We shall die if I cannot find some food,' said the poor little boy to
himself, and he went out again to search the empty houses in the
village, lest by chance the people might have left some dried salmon or
a halibut behind them. He found neither salmon nor halibut, but he
picked up in one place a stone axe, and in another a handle, and in a
third a hammer. The axe and the handle he fastened together, and after
sharpening the blade of the axe he began to cut down a tree. The tree
was large, and the poor little boy was small, and had not much
strength, so that dusk was approaching before the tree fell. The next
thing he did was to split the tree and make a wide crack, which he kept
open by wedging two short sticks across it. When this was done he placed
the tree on the trail which led to the lake, and ran home again.
Early in the morning he crept safely out, and went to the shore of the
lake and shouted four times, looking up as he shouted at the sky. Again
there arose a wave on the water, and out of it came the frog, with the
copper eyes and mouth and claws. It hopped swiftly towards him, but now
the poor little boy did not mind, and waited till it could almost touch
him. Then he turned and fled along the trail where the tree lay. Easily
he slipped between the two sticks, and was safe on the other side, but
the great frog stuck fast, and the more it struggled to be free the
tighter it was held.
As soon as the poor little boy saw that the frog was firmly pinned
between the bars, he took up his stone hammer which he had left beside
the tree and dealt two sharp blows to the sticks that wedged open the
crack. The sticks flew out and the crack closed with a snap, killing the
frog as it did so. For awhile the poor little boy sat beside the tree
quietly, but when he was sure the great frog must be quite dead, he put
back the sticks to wedge open the crack and drew out the frog.
'I must turn it on its back to skin it,' said he, and after a long time
he managed to do this: But he did not take off the claws on the skin,
which he spread on the ground to dry. After the skin was dried he put
his arms and legs into it, and laced it firmly across his chest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account