Atondido Stories
The Children With One Eye
Two little children, a boy and a girl, lived long ago with their
widowed mother in the Canadian forest. The woman was very
poor, for her husband had long been dead and she had to work
very hard to provide food for herself and her children. Often she
had to go far from home in search of fish and game, and at times
she was absent for many days. When she went on these long
journeys she left her children behind her, and thus they were al-
lowed to grow up with very little oversight or discipline or care.
They soon became very unruly because they were so often left to
have their own way, and when their mother returned from her
hunting trips she frequently found that they would not obey her,
and that they did pretty much as they pleased. As they grew old-
er they became more headstrong and disobedient, and their
mother could do very little to control them. And she said, "Some
day they will suffer for their waywardness."
One day the woman went to visit a neighbour not far away.
She left a large pot of bear-fat boiling on the fire. And she said to
the children, "Do not meddle with the pot while I am gone, for
the fat may harm you if it catches fire." But she was not gone
long when the boy said to the girl as they played around the pot,
"Let us see if the fat will burn." So they took a burning stick of
wood and dropped it into the fat, and stood looking into the
large pot to see what would happen. The fat sputtered for an in-
stant; then there was a sudden flash, and a tongue of flame shot
upwards from the pot into the faces of the children. Their hair
was burned to a crisp and their faces were scorched, and they
ran from the house crying with pain. But when they reached the
outer air, they found that they could not see, for the fire had
blinded their eyes. So they stumbled around in darkness, crying
loudly for help. But no help came.
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