THE BAD WIFE


I

There was once a man who had but one wife. He was not a chief, but a very
brave warrior. He was rich, too, so he could have had plenty of wives if he
wished; but he loved his wife very much, and did not want any more. He was
very good to this woman. She always wore the best clothes that could be
found. If any other woman had a fine buckskin dress, or something very
pretty, the man would buy it for her.

It was summer. The berries were ripe, and the woman kept saying to her
husband, "Let us go and pick some berries for winter." "No," replied the
man. "It is dangerous now. The enemy is travelling all around." But still
the woman kept teasing him to go. So one day he told her to get ready. Some
other women went, too. They all went on horseback, for the berries were a
long way from camp. When they got to the place, the man told the women to
keep near their horses all the time. He would go up on a butte near by and
watch. "Be careful," he said. "Keep by your horses, and if you see me
signal, throw away your berries, get on your horses and ride towards camp
as fast as you can."

They had not picked many berries before the man saw a war party coming. He
signalled the women, and got on his horse and rode towards them. It
happened that this man and his wife both had good horses, but the others,
all old women, rode slow old travois horses, and the enemy soon overtook
and killed them. Many kept on after the two on good horses, and after a
while the woman's horse began to get tired; so she asked her husband to let
her ride on his horse with him. The woman got up behind him, and they went