"Never!" they replied, holding out their hands. And the hunter died
content.

Scarcely eight moons had passed when, just as he had said, the wife
went forth and followed her husband; but before leaving her children
she bade the two elder ones think of their promise never to forsake the
younger, for he was a child and weak. And while the snow lay thick
upon the ground they tended him and cherished him; but when the earth
showed green again the heart of the young man stirred within him, and
he longed to see the wigwams of the village where his father's youth
was spent.

Therefore he opened all his heart to his sister, who answered: "My
brother, I understand your longing for our fellow-men, whom here we
cannot see. But remember our father's words. Shall we not seek our
own pleasures and forget the little one?"

But he would not listen, and, making no reply, he took his bow and
arrows and left the hut. The snows fell and melted, yet he never
returned, and at last the heart of the girl grew cold and hard and her
little boy became a burden in her eyes, till one day she spoke thus to
him: "See, there is food for many days to come. Stay here within the
shelter of the hut. I go to seek our brother, and when I have found
him I shall return hither."

But when, after hard journeying, she reached the village where her
brother dwelt and saw that he had a wife and was happy, and when she,
too, was sought by a young brave, then she also forgot the boy alone in
the forest and thought only of her husband.