Now Master Lox, having taken down the younger sister with all the
politeness in the world, came for the other, and aided her also to
descend. And when on the ground she indeed said, "_Willcr-oon_" "I
thank you" (P.), but begged him to go up the tree again and bring down
a great treasure which she had left there, her hair-string: beseeching
him for all their lives not to break or injure it in any way, but to
most carefully untie every knot, for thus doing it would bring untold
felicity on them all; and that they, the Weasels, would meantime build
a beautiful bridal bower, or a wigwam, and that so furnished as he had
never seen the like before,--in which verily they kept their word.
For they speedily built the wigwam, but the furniture thereof was of
this rare kind. The Weasels had, it seems, certain sworn friends,--for
birds of a feather flock together,--and these were not far to seek, as
they were the Thorns, Burrs, and Briers of all kinds, Hornets and other
winged and stinged insects, besides the Ants. And they were, moreover,
intimate with all the sharp-edged Flints in the land, which was a
goodly company. So when the bower was built it had therein a hornet's
nest for a bridal bed, thorns for a carpet, flints for a floor, and an
ant's nest for a seat, which for a bare-footed and bare-breeched Indian
is indeed a sore essay.
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