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186 "Nushka! you shall have a sweetheart,

You shall have a handsome husband!"

"Ugh!" the old men all responded

From their seats beneath the pine-trees.

And whene'er a youth or maiden

Found a crooked ear in husking,

Found a maize ear in the husking

Blighted, mildewed, or misshapen,

Then they laughed and sang together,

Crept and limped about the corn-fields,

Mimicked in their gait and gestures

Some old man, bent almost double,

Singing singly or together:

"Wagemin, the thief of corn-fields!

Paimosaid,the skulking robber!"

Till the corn-fields rang with laughter,

Till from Hiawatha's wigwam

Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens,

Screamed and quivered in his anger,

And from all the neighboring tree-tops