When Ah-mo had flown away, little Luke looked around to see what old
Mrs. Ik-to was doing, but he could not find her.

Leaving the old spider to mend her web as well as she could, little Luke
got over the fence into the pasture. As he was going along he heard Mrs.
Chee-wink making a great outcry. She was flying about a little bushy fir
tree not bigger than a currant bush. "Chee-wink, to-whee; chee-wink,
to-whee!" she called. Little Luke thought she was saying, "Help! Help!
Come here, come here!" And so she was.

[Illustration]

He went up toward the fir bush. As he walked along, he picked up a stout
stick that was lying on the ground. When he came to the bush, Mrs.
Chee-wink flew off to a tall sapling near by and watched him without
saying a word.

At first he could not see anything to disturb anybody. But he knew that
Mrs. Chee-wink would never have made all that fuss for nothing. So he
took hold of the fir bush and pulled the branches apart. Then he
understood. He had almost put his hand on A-tos-sa the Big Blacksnake.

A-tos-sa had a half-grown bird by the wing and was trying to swallow
it. The young bird was strong enough to flutter a good deal and Mother
Chee-wink had flapped her wings in the snake's eyes and pecked his head,
so that he had not been able to get a good hold.

Little Luke struck at once. The stick hit the snake and he let go of the
bird and slid down to the ground. Little Luke hit him again, this time