River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-11-01
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t The ThundererS t
tFrom Casselrs Magazine. Reprinted by Special
HermissiOn.J
CT ATHER says it looks ike thun.

peror in the middle of the Indian snow
shoe makers.
Your father knows all about some
things" said Ossawippi; but white
men can't read the clouds like Indians
any more than Indians can read books
like white men. There won't be any
thunder to-day"
I'm sorry for that, said the little
Canadian. | like TO hear thunder. It
sounds almost as fine as a menagerie.
But mothers frightened"
II don't know what menagerie is, )"
said the Indian chief; but the Thun-
Gerers are good and nobody ought to
be frightened of them-only the bad
people, at any rate"
Tell me who the Thunderers are,
commanded Rennie.
And then Ossawippi told this story:
Once upon a time there were three
Wyandot braves who set out to make a
raid on the Cherokees; and the country
of the Cherokees was long way off,
far down in the south. Just before they
got there one Of the braves had his leg
broken by a tree falling on it.
What shall we do. said one of the
others. by the Wyandot law We must
carry him home. but is long way.
Let us kill him and say the bears took
him"
The other man said: NO, that would
be too wicked" But after they had
carried the broken man one day they
were both very tired. and they threw
him into a dark pit. and went home and
said he had been eaten by bears. His
mother was a widow. and she had no
bther son, so She cried a very long while.
But her son wasn't so dead as she
thought him. When he fell on the bot
tom of the pit his broken leg hurt him
and he cried aloud. Then he saw an old
man come out of a hole in the side of
the pit. and the old man had long, white
hair sticking straight out all round his
head.
'What can l do for you, my SOM"
said the old man.
"You can mend my broken leg, if
you're c.ever enough" said the Wyan-
dot.
"My medicine is great" said the old
man. 81 could mend you if you were
broken in seven pieces. But what will
you give me?'
Anything you like" said the Indian,
''if YOU mend me at once"
"Then promise that you will live with
me, and hunt for me, and bring home
the game by yourself"
The young man promised. and the old
man bent down and touched the broken
LEG with the hair of his head; and the
young man sprang up and danced as
II nothing mad happened.
They lived together all the winter
and the young man went out every day
and brought back deer and bears and
wild geese and fish, enough for weeks
big feasting; but after he had eaten his
supper and gone to sleep the old man
ate up all the rest, so that there was
not even bone to pick for breakfast.
One morning the young man went out,
and wandered far into the woods with
put seeing a live thing. There was not
a sound to be beard except the dripping
of the trees, for spring was coming and
the sun was hot; and the snow was soft
and all the trails were melted out. AL
of a sudden he spied a monstrous bear,
The bear saw him and began to climb a
tree; but the young man strung his
bow hard and let fly an arrow, and the
bear tumbled down. The snow was
soft. Tut when the big bear fell on it
here was crash like the ice breaking
up in the river. The hunter pulled out
another arrow, and looked round to
see where the noice came from.
Put down your bow said a voice
right over his head. like the voice of
great chief
The hunter looked up, and there was
a big, white bird perched on the top of
the tree; and the bird flew down, and
when it touched the ground it was
tall man with a shining face. and
wrapped in a blanket like a soft, white
cloud
Don't be afraid" he sad Il am the
Thuuderer, the protector of men and
the enemy of their enemies. The old
man Of the pit is not a man at all.
and YOU must help me TO kill him. As
long as he stays underground he is safe.
so you must get him out"
Il will try" said the Indian. Then
he went back and said to the old man:
Il have killed monstrous bear. as fat
as at the beginning of winter. with
enough meat on him for a month of
feasting. But | can't drag him home
by myself, so YOU must come and help"
Never" said the old man. and his
hair bristled like bodkins But i'm few
minutes he began TO lick his lips. and
said: Go out and see if there's a speck
of cloud in the sky"
The young man went up to see mot
a speck," he called out. Then the old
man climbed up, and the two of them
tramped away through the woods The
old man went so fast, though the snow
was soft and deep and he had no snow
shoes. that the young man could hardly
keep up with him; ard when they got
TO where the dead bear lay the old man
threw the carcass over his shoulder as
if IL was only muskrat and started
walking home again faster than ever.
As he went, little Speck of cloud APP
reared in the sky. and got larger and
larger. The old man walked faster and
faster; but the cloud got so big and
black that you would have thought the
sun was setting before noon; and the
old man screeched and dropped the
hear meat. and turned into what he
was-a horrid. speary porcupine.
The cloud opened in the middle, and
down few the white Thunderer, shin
ing so bright that you couldn't look a
him; and he few al the porcupine.
The porcupiue shot out all his spears
at him. but they only stuck in the Thun-
derer's woolly coat. and the naked por-
cupine was scorched up 10 a cinGer.
The Thunderer was so p.easeu that
he gave the young Indian white dress
and wings like his own, The young man
flew home to tell his mother he was not
dead; but after he had lived in house
for week he said fortnight would
be seven days more than he could stand.
So he put on his wings and became a
Thunderer himself.
THAT was jolly" shouted Rennie
"And did they go about together hunt
ing poreupines9
"Ho!" said Ossawippi. contemptuous-
". "Porcupines were nothing TO what