The blue heron was too proud to be used as a bridge for every one. The wolf saw that he had not asked in the right way, so he began again. “You must be a very stout bird. Your feathers are very fine, but they cover a stout body. My grandfather has said that two herons can carry a load of fish, but you could carry such a load alone.” The heron looked at the wolf and told him to get up on his back. “I will carry you,” said the heron. The wolf showed all his teeth in a grin as he got on the heron’s back. The heron waded to the middle of the stream and said: “I am only half as strong as two herons, so I can carry you only halfway. You must wait here until you find another heron as foolish as I am, to carry you the rest of the way.” The heron flapped his wings and flew back to his place in the marsh. The wolf could not wait to find another foolish heron, but went straight to the bottom of the river. XIV. THE LITTLE WOLF BROTHER A wigwam stood alone by a great forest. There were five people in it for a long time; these were the father, mother, one daughter, and two sons. Before the winter was over only the children were left, for the old warrior and his squaw had gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds. The girl and the oldest boy promised faithfully to care for their little brother, who was weak and suffered often from sickness. For twelve moons the older boy hunted and fished and brought food to the wigwam; then he told his sister that he must go with some braves he had seen in the forest, and be a great warrior like his father. “But you promised to stay until the little one was grown tall. You promised our father and our mother.” “It is a squaw’s work to care for the children; you can do it. I am brave; I must fight,” said the oldest brother. “You are not brave, and you have not a straight tongue. It is not well to do as you are doing. When you go on the warpath you will lose your arrows, and your scalp will hang to the belt of your enemy. Come back,” said the sister. The boy ran from his sister’s call into the grove of great trees. He jumped on his pony and rode away to the band of warriors he had seen. The sister and the little brother lived together in the wigwam until the wild geese had come and gone three times from the lake in the forest. They saw no one but the wild deer and the other animals. They planted their corn and tried to be happy; but the girl grew very lonely, and one day when she saw another wigwam across the lake she felt like the young wolf they had tied to a tree near the wigwam. “Come, let us go and see who is across the lake,” she said to the little one. “I cannot walk so far; you have not made me new moccasins. I am hungry; give me more meat,” was his answer.