While Mewanee listened and waited, his father, the chief, approached.

The chief was big and brave and strong.

His copper-colored body had many strange pictures painted upon it.

His black hair hung about his neck and shoulders and was decorated with many feathers.

A short skin skirt hung about his waist. His deer-skin moccasins made his step very light and soft.

Mewanee also wore moccasins. His mother made them from buckskin and sewed them together with a queer bone needle threaded with deer sinews.

In the winter the Indian people wore snowshoes and heavy fur skins over their bodies.

Mewanee jumped up and down for joy when he saw his father. He was very proud of being a chief’s son.

The chief carried his war club in his belt, and his bow and arrow in his hand.

He had many scalp locks dangling from his belt.

These scalp locks showed that Mewanee’s father was a brave chief. Indians took scalp locks from the heads of the people they killed, because they thought that these showed their bravery.

Mewanee was very glad to see his father, who, he knew, had just come home from the hunt.

He gave a loud shout when he saw the buffalo which some of the Indians were bringing to the chief’s wigwam.

He looked at his father with great pride for he felt sure that the chief had killed this splendid animal.

“How fine!” said Mewanee, as he and his father entered the wigwam.

Supper was ready and was quickly placed before the chief as he threw himself upon a mat in one corner of the wigwam.

How fast the stewed meat, corn cakes and sassafras tea disappeared! The chief used a gourd for a cup, and hollow pieces of tree trunk for dishes.

It did not take him long to eat his supper because he ate very quickly.

Now the chief took out his long-stemmed pipe from his belt.

The tobacco he took from a skin bag which he also carried in his belt.

How quickly he filled the stone bowl of his pipe with the powdered tobacco!

Then he rubbed together two pieces of flint. Oh! he lost the first spark, but the second he caught with the thin piece of reed which he had ready.

How contented he looked as he stretched himself lengthwise on the rug and smoked his long pipe!

The chief’s pipe was very beautiful.

The stem was wonderfully carved and was beautifully ornamented with braids of porcupine quills and with beaks and tufts from woodpeckers’ heads.

Mewanee jumped up and looked eagerly at the fine buffalo which his father had shot.

He knew that the skin would make a fine warm covering for him next winter. Mewanee’s mother would skin the buffalo with a sharp knife and stretch the skin in the sun to dry.

Now that the chief had finished his supper, Mewanee, mother and baby brother would eat.

Mewanee’s mother called to him and he hurried to the place his father had just left.

Mewanee was hungry and quickly ate the food which his mother put before him. Baby brother awakened and wanted supper too. Mother took the cradle from the peg and fed her little boy some of the corn cake which had been left.

Suddenly the chief got up from his skin mat and rushed out of the wigwam.

Mewanee rushed out also. He wondered why his father stood so silent and looked anxiously toward a hill in the distance.

He stood by his father’s side and said nothing.

Now the chief put his ear to the ground and listened.

Indians could hear sounds miles away and they had very keen sight.

The evening was very still and peaceful. The gentle moon was just about to peep from behind the clouds.

The chief jumped up very quickly. He was silent and serious.

Yet he looked and looked into the distance.

Mewanee too was very thoughtful; he was anxious to know why his father seemed so worried.

At last he said, “What is the trouble, father? Why are you so silent and grave?”

“My son,” said the chief, “I fear our enemy, the Indians who live beyond that distant hill.

“May the Great Spirit protect and guard us from their wrath.”

Then he sent Mewanee into the wigwam, while the stars said, “Good night, Mewanee, good night.”