Now Lox, knowing all this thread as soon as it was spun, began to think
it high time to show his hand in the game. And what was the amazement
of all the town to hear, one fine evening, that the chief's wife would
soon be a mother. And when the time came Dame Lox informed her husband
that, according to the custom of her people, she must be left utterly
alone till he was a father and the babe born. And when in due time the
cry of a small child was heard in the lodge the women waiting ran in,
and received from the mother the little one, abundantly rolled in many
wrappers, which they took to the chief. But what was his amazement,
when having unrolled the package, he found under one skin after
another, tied up hard, yet another sewed up, and yet again, as the
inmost kernel of this nut, the little withered, wizened, dead, and
dried shrivelment of an unborn moose calf. Which pleased the chief so
much that, dashing Master Moose into the fire, he seized his tomahawk
and ran to his lodge to make his first morning call on the mother.
But Master Lox was now a man again, and expecting this call, and not
wishing to see visitors, had with his brother fled to the woods, and
that rapidly. And in the rush he came to a river, and, seeing a very
high waterfall, thought of a rare device whereby he might elude
pursuit. For he with his brother soon built a dam across the top with
trees and earth, so that but little water went below.
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