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Finally OLD-man began to sing a song in the duck-talk, and keep time with his drum. The Duck-people liked the music, and swam a little nearer to the shore, watching for trouble all the time, but OLD-man sang so sweetly that pretty soon they waddled up to the lodge and went inside.
Politely, OLD-man passed the pipe, and they all smoked with him because it is wrong not to smoke in a person's lodge if the pipe is offered, and the Duck-people knew that. "'Well, said Old-man, 'this is going to be the Blind-dance, but you will have to be painted first. "'Brother Mallard, name the colors tell how you want me to paint you.
Of course they hurt and smart no more but they stay red to pay for peeking, and always will. You have seen the mallard and the rest of the Duck-people. You can see that the colors OLD-man painted so long ago are still bright and handsome, and they will stay that way forever and forever. Ho!"
On the hill where OLD-man stood there was a great deal of moss, and he began to tear it from the ground and roll it into a great ball. When he had gathered all he needed he shouldered the load and started for the shore of the lake, staggering under the weight of the great burden. Finally the Duck-people saw him coming with his load of moss and began to swim away from the shore.
You have noticed that they wear fine clothes but you do not know how they got them; so I will tell you to-night. "It was in the fall when leaves are yellow that it happened, and long, long ago. The Duck-people had gathered to go away, just as they are doing now. The buck-deer was coming down from the high ridges to visit friends in the lowlands along the streams as they have always done.
Ho! things were going fine for OLD-man, but the loon peeked a little, and saw what was going on; several others heard the fluttering and opened their eyes, too. The loon cried out, 'He's killing us let us fly, and they did that. There was a great squawking and quacking and fluttering as the Duck-people escaped from the lodge.
"Then the Duck-people shut their eyes and OLD-man began to sing: 'Now you come, ducks, now you come tum-tum, tum; tum-tum, tum. "Around the fire they came with their eyes still shut, and as fast as they reached OLD-man, the rascal would seize them, and wring their necks.
It was all because OLD-man kicked him in the back the night he painted all the Duck-people. "Down went the Spotted Loon, and long he stayed beneath the water. All waited and watched, and longed for good luck, but when he came to the top he was dead. Everybody groaned all felt badly, I can tell you, as OLD-man laid the dead Loon on the logs.
Ho! but OLD-man was angry, and he kicked the back of the loon-duck, and that is why his feet turn from his body when he walks or tries to stand. Yes, that is why he is a cripple to-day. "And all of the Duck-people that peeked that night at the dance still have sore eyes just as OLD-man told them they would have.
"One day in the fall when the leaves were yellow, and the Deer-people were dressed in their blue robes when the Geese and Duck-people were travelling to the country where water does not freeze, and where flowers never die, OLD-man was travelling on the plains. "Near sundown he saw two Buffalo-Bulls feeding on a steep hillside; but he had no bow and arrow with him.
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