Atondido Stories
could he make out. He wondered if the canoes were drifting un-
occupied, for when he called to them there was no answer.
Sometimes a canoe upset in the tossing sea and the waves rose
over it and it was seen no more, and the boy often thought he
heard an anguished cry. For several days he sailed on to the
West, and all the time other canoes were not far away, and all the
time some of them were dropping from sight beneath the surg-
ing waters, but he saw no people in them.
At last, after a long journey, the sea grew calm and the air
was sweet and warm. There was no trace of the storm, for the
waves were quiet and the sky was as clear as crystal. He saw that
he was near the Island of the Blest of which the old man had
spoken, for it was now plain to his view, as it rose above the
ocean, topped with green grass and trees, and a snow-white
beach. Soon he reached the shore and drew up his canoe. As he
turned away he came upon a skeleton lying flat upon the sand.
He stopped to look at it, and as he did so, the skeleton sat up
and said in great surprise, "You should not be here. Why have
you come?" And the boy said, "I seek my sister. In the early
spring-time she sickened and died, and I am going to the Land
of Shadows in the Country of Silence in search of her." "You
must go far inland," said the skeleton, "and the way is hard to
find for such as you." The boy asked for guidance and the skele-
ton said, "Let me smoke and I will help you." The boy gave him
the pipe and the tobacco he had received from the old man, and
he laughed when he saw his strange companion with the pipe
between his teeth. The skeleton smoked for some time and at
last, as the smoke rose from his pipe, it changed to a flock of
little white birds, which flew about like doves. The boy looked
on in wonder, and the skeleton said, "These birds will guide you.
Follow them." Then he gave back the pipe and stretched out
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