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'

Now attend and listen!

One day Tegumai Bopsulai went down through the beaver-swamp to
the Wagai river to spear carp-fish for dinner, and Taffy went
too. Tegumai's spear was made of wood with shark's teeth at the
end, and before he had caught any fish at all he accidentally
broke it clean across by jabbing it down too hard on the bottom
of the river. They were miles and miles from home (of course they
had their lunch with them in a little bag), and Tegumai had
forgotten to bring any extra spears.

'Here's a pretty kettle of fish!' said Tegumai. 'It will take me
half the day to mend this.'

'There's your big black spear at home,' said Taffy. 'Let me run
back to the Cave and ask Mummy to give it me.'

'It's too far for your little fat legs,' said Tegumai. 'Besides,
you might fall into the beaver-swamp and be drowned. We must make
the best of a bad job.' He sat down and took out a little leather
mendy-bag, full of reindeer-sinews and strips of leather, and
lumps of bee's-wax and resin, and began to mend the spear.

Taffy sat down too, with her toes in the water and her chin in
her hand, and thought very hard. Then she said--'I say, Daddy,
it's an awful nuisance that you and I don't know how to write,
isn't it? If we did we could send a message for the new spear.'

'Taffy,' said Tegumai, 'how often have I told you not to use
slang? "Awful" isn't a pretty word, but it could be a
convenience, now you mention it, if we could write home.'

Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to
a far tribe, the Tewaras, and he did not understand one word of
Tegumai's language. He stood on the bank and smiled at Taffy,
because he had a little girl-daughter Of his own at home. Tegumai
drew a hank of deer-sinews from his mendy-bag and began to mend
his spear.

'Come here, said Taffy. 'Do you know where my Mummy lives?' And
the Stranger-man said 'Um!' being, as you know, a Tewara.

'Silly!' said Taffy, and she stamped her foot, because she saw a
shoal of very big carp going up the river just when her Daddy
couldn't use his spear.

'Don't bother grown-ups,' said Tegumai, so busy with his
spear-mending that he did not turn round.

'I aren't, said Taffy. 'I only want him to do what I want him to
do, and he won't understand.'

'Then don't bother me, said Tegumai, and he went on pulling and
straining at the deer-sinews with his mouth full of loose ends.
The Stranger-man--a genuine Tewara he was--sat down on the grass,
and Taffy showed him what her Daddy was doing. The Stranger-man
thought, this is a very wonderful child. She stamps her foot at
me and she makes faces. She must be the daughter of that noble
Chief who is so great that he won't take any notice of me.' So he
smiled more politely than ever.

'Now,' said Taffy, 'I want you to go to my Mummy, because your

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