And as
she lived with him she was to him in all things as he wished, and as a
wife.
So that it came to pass, as time went on, that a new-comer was
expected, and she bade the Bear provide the baby's clothes. And when
the long-expected infant came it was a boy, large, beautiful, and
strong; he was in everything beyond all other boys.
And as the child was born in a strange way, he very soon displayed a
magic power. No baby ever grew so rapidly: when four months old he
wrestled with the Bear and threw him easily upon the floor. And so the
mother saw that he would be a warrior, and the chief of other men.
She loathed the life she led, and wished to leave, and live as she had
done in days of old. To this the Bear would in nowise consent, and as
her son was human, like herself, he loved his mother best, and thought
with her.
One day he said, "Now I can wrestle well and throw the Bear as often as
I choose. When I next time cast him upon the ground, catch up a club;
the rest remains for you!"
They waited yet a while till he had grown so strong that the Bear was
nothing in his grasp. One day they wrestled as they ever did, and then
the woman, with a vigorous blow, strengthened by hate and famishing
desire of freedom and a better human life, laid him in death upon the
mossy floor.
They went their way back to the chieftain's town, and found him married
to the servant-girl.
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