Here is the first spot. Five minutes more and you'd have been a white
bear. Ah, you haven't the pluck of a gull; that I can see."
Now the Bear was mortified and disappointed. He had not seen the spot,
so he asked Lox if it was really there.
"Wait a minute," said the doctor. He led the Bear to a pool and made
him look in. Sure enough, the spot was there. Then he asked if they
could not begin again.
"Certainly we can," replied the doctor. "But it will be much hotter and
harder and longer this time. Don't try it if you feel afraid, and don't
blame _me_ if you die of it."
The Bear went in again, but he never came out alive. The doctor had
roast bear meat all that winter, and much bear's oil. He gave some of
the oil to his younger brother. The boy took it in a measure. Going
along the creek, he saw a Muskrat (_Keuchus_, Pass.). He said to
the Muskrat, "If you can harden this oil for me, I will give you half."
The Muskrat made it as hard as ice. The boy said, "If my brother comes
and asks you to do this for him, do you keep it all." And, returning,
he showed the oil thus hardened to his brother, who, taking a large
measure of it, went to the Muskrat and asked him to harden it. The
Muskrat indeed took the dish and swam away with it, and never returned.
Then the elder, vexed with the younger, and remembering the ducks in
the wigwam, and believing now that he had indeed been cheated, slew
him.
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