"And always did he remember the salt lake as big as the sky and the
country under the sun where there is no snow," quoth Zilla.

"And always did he say, 'When I have the full strength of a man, I
will go and see for myself if the talk of Yamikan be true talk,'"
said Ebbits.

"But there was no way to go to the white man's country," said
Zilla.

"Did he not go down to the salt lake that is big as the sky?"
Ebbits demanded.

"And there was no way for him across the salt lake," said Zilla.

"Save in the white man's fire-boat which is of iron and is bigger
than twenty steamboats on the Yukon," said Ebbits. He scowled at
Zilla, whose withered lips were again writhing into speech, and
compelled her to silence. "But the white man would not let him
cross the salt lake in the fire-boat, and he returned to sit by the
fire and hunger for the country under the sun where there is no
snow.'"

"Yet on the salt lake had he seen the fire-boat of iron that did
not sink," cried out Zilla the irrepressible.

"Ay," said Ebbits, "and he saw that Yamikan had made true talk of
the things he had seen. But there was no way for Bidarshik to
journey to the white man's land under the sun, and he grew sick and