They escaped with great trouble; they had trouble to
save their canoe.
The man was in great grief at the loss of his gun. He sat down and
sang:--
"Nici sigi psach ke-yin,
Dich m'djel mieol wagh nuch'."
I am sorry,
I am in great trouble.
There came two Indians down to the portage where the man and his wife
sat. They asked him why he was so sad. He told them all. One of them
was a _m'teoulin_. He asked of them, "Could you tell your gun if
you saw it?" The woman cried quickly, "I could!" He was not pleased at
her forwardness, but put the question again; when she as pertly
answered, "Yes," for her husband. He looked sternly at her, and said,
"Are you sure?" To which she cried, "Yes, yes!" Then he said, "If you
are very bold, and not afraid of anything, you may get it again." And
this, too, she took on herself, saying, "Oh, yes, _I'm_ not
afraid; _I'll_ get it," making no account of her husband.
Then, by the order of the man, she went to a ledge just below the
falls, where they are seventy-five feet high. There was a little
projecting rock on which she could just sit,--a horrible place. Below
it was a dreadful eddy, in which nothing could live. He helped her down
to it, and she was in mortal terror, as such glib-tongued women
generally are when there is the least danger. Then the man went away.
And as she sat there, trembling and half dead with fright, she saw
Something come up out of the eddy,--even out of the worst of it.
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