HOW THE BADGER MADE THE MAG- ICAL FIRE

NE cold day in Winter, the Badger—Who

was also a Wolverine, or a Racoon, just as

he pleased—set out upon a journey. That

night he spent in the lodge of the Chief of the

Wolves. When the Badger was about to start

upon his journey again, the Wolf Chief said to him,

“Uncle, you have still three more days to travel, in a land Where there is neither Wigwam nor fire; and it Will be poor camping Without a fire. Now, I have a great charm by which I can give you three fires, but no more. Yet these Will do, one for each night, until you reach your journey’s end. Gather small sticks and place them together, as boys do When they make Wigwams for sport. Then jump over them again and again until a blaze springs up through the sticks.”

As the Badger travelled on through the snow, he could not help thinking about his secret of the fire, Which no one but the wolves and him-

self knew. He wondered Whether it were really 185