Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/207

Rh first bark-house he halted, and asked if the boy had gone past; he was told that he had. He hurried on, and inquired at the next house, and they told him that the boy had gone along. Soon he reached the house where the boy was. When the boy's own uncle saw the bear approaching, he said to his bark-house, "Let my house become a stone!" and it turned into one the shape of a mound, and there was a very small hole for an entrance. The uncle and nephew remained within.

The bear said, "You have my boy, and now let us decide by a fight who shall have him. You come out here and we will fight." "No, you come into the house if you want to fight," said the uncle, and the boy laughed.

The bear became very angry at this, and put his paw into the entrance and tried to open it wider, but he could not do it.

The uncle lighted a pine-knot and set fire to the bear's paw. The bear withdrew his paw and tried to brush off the fire with the other paw, but his fur was so oily that, instead of putting the fire out, he set fire to the other paw. He ran to the lake and plunged into it, but the lake was not water, it was oil, and he set it all afire, and was consumed in it.

The house became a bark-house again, and the uncle went to the lake and blew out the fire.

They lived together in happiness, fished, and trapped, and hunted, and had all good things in abundance.

HERE was once upon a time an old king who had an only son. This son he one day summoned before him, and spoke to him thus: "My son, you see that my head has become white; ere long I shall close my eyes, and I do not yet know in what condition I shall leave you. Take a wife, my