"Wakonda quickly responded, and said: 'A lazy, gossiping wife is not only a
disgrace to her husband, she is annoying to all around her; and so it will
be in this case.'
"Then Wakonda told her husband to take some of the dirt which still clung
to his garments, which she was supposed to have cleansed, and to throw it
at her. This the man did, and the particles of dirt at once changed into
mosquitoes. And so, ever since, especially in the warm days and nights of
early summer when the mosquitoes with their singing and stinging come
around to trouble us, we are reminded of this lazy, slovenly woman, who was
not only a trial to her husband, but by her lack of industry and care
brought such a scourge upon all the people."
"Didn't Wakonda do anything else?" murmured the little lad; but that
blessed thing called sleep now enfolded both the little ones, and with
mutterings of "Nanahboozhoo--Wakonda--Souwanas--Mary"--they were soon far
away in childhood's happy dreamland.
CHAPTER III.
More about Mary and the Children--Minnehaha Stung by
the Bees--How the Bees Got Their Stings--What Happened
to the Bears that Tried to Steal the Honey.
The next morning while Mary was dressing them the children told her of
their adventures in the wigwam of the Indians. Mary was really interested,
though she pretended to be disgusted at the whole thing, and professed, in
her Indian way, to be quite shocked when they both confidentially informed
her that they had had such a good time that they were going again even if
they had to run away and be whipped for it.
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