Atondido Stories
mother said he might go. His brothers were very angry when
they heard his request, and they said, "Much good Thick-head
can do us in the chase. He will only bring us bad luck. He is not
a hunter but a scullion and a drudge fit only for the fireside." But
his mother commanded them to grant the boy's wish and they
had to obey. So the three brothers set out for the north country,
the two older brothers grumbling loudly because they were ac-
companied by the boy they thought a fool.
The two older brothers had good success in the chase and
they killed many animals—deer and rabbits and otters and bea-
vers. And they came home bearing a great quantity of dried
meat and skins. They each thought, "Now we have begun to
prove our prowess to the Chief, and if we succeed as well next
year when the hunter's moon comes again, one of us will surely
win his daughter when she is old enough to marry." But all the
youngest boy brought home as a result of his journey into the
game country was a large Earth-Worm as thick as his finger and
as long as his arm. It was the biggest Earth-Worm he had ever
seen. He thought it a great curiosity as well as a great discovery,
and he was so busy watching it each day that he had no time to
hunt. When he brought it home in a box, his brothers said to
their mother, "What did we tell you about Thick-head? He has
now surely proved himself a fool. He has caught only a fat Earth
-Worm in all these weeks." And they noised it abroad in the vil-
lage and all the people laughed loudly at the simpleton, until
"Thick-head's hunt" became a by-word in all the land. But the
boy's mother only smiled and said, "He will surprise them all
yet."
The boy kept the Earth-Worm in a tiny pen just outside the
door of his home. One day a large Duck came waddling along,
and sticking her bill over the little fence of the pen she quickly
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