"Pity me," said the woman. "Let me go and get my things. I will surely come
to-night. I speak the truth."

"How do you speak the truth?"[1] asked her husband.

[Footnote 1: Blackfoot--_Tsa-ki-an-ist-o-man-i?_ i.e., How you like truth?]

"That my relations there across the river may be safe and live long, I
speak the truth."

"Go then," said the man, "and get your things. I will cross the river now."
He went up on the bank and walked down the river, keeping his face
hidden. No one noticed him, or if they did, they thought he belonged to the
camp. As soon as he had passed the first bend, he swam across the river,
and soon joined his relations.

"I have seen my wife," he said to them. "She will come over as soon as it
is dark. I let her go back to get some things that were given her."

"You are crazy," said one of the men, "very crazy. She already loves this
new man she has, or she would not have wanted to go back."

"Stop that," said the husband; "do not talk bad of her. She will surely
come."


III

The woman went back to her lodge with the water, and, sitting down near the
fireplace, she began to act very strangely. She took up pieces of charred