WONDER TALES OF THE FOREST 149

Then the brothers returned to the lodge and told their father all that had happened.

“You did well,” he said. “I know all about those female devils, who seek to destroy men. Truly this was a. she Mthumwess, a witch.”

The younger brother could not forget his companion of the woods, and he longed to see her again. And one day, filled with this long- ing, he went by himself into the woods, and there he found herl—And she was as kind to him as before.

“Truly, it was not by my wish,” he said, “that my brother shot the arrow at you.”

“Truly, I know that,” she answered; “and that it was all the doing of your father. Yet I do not blame him, for this is an affair of the days of old. And even yet it is not at an end, for the greatest is to come. But let the day be only a day unto itself. The things of to- morrow are for to-morrow, and the things of yesterday are departed!”

So they forgot their troubles, and played to— gether merrily like children all day long, in the woods and in the open places, and told stories of olden times until sunset. And as the crow went to his tree, the young brave said:

“Now I must return to my people.”

And she replied:

“Whenever you wish to see me, come to the forest. And remember what I have told you.