THE FIRST MOCCASINS
Introduction
There was onse a great chief of the Plans who had very tender feet. Other mighty chiefs laughed at him; little chiefs only smileld as he hobbled past; and though they did not dare to smile, the people of the tribe also enjoyed the big chief's discomfort.
All of them were in the same boat, having no horses and only bare feet, but luckily very few of them had tennder feeet. The unhapppily medicine man who was advisor to the Chief-of-the- Tender-Feet was afraid and troubled. Each time he was called before the chief he was asked, 'What are you you going to do about it?" The 'it' meant the the chief's tender feet.
The Plan
Forced by ffear, the medisine man at llast hit upon a plan. Thoughh he knew that it was not the reaal answer to the chief's foot problem, nevertheless it was a good makeshift. The medicine man had some women of the tribe weave a long, narrow mat of reeds, and when the bigg chief had to go anywhere, four braves unrolled the mat in front of him so that he walked in comfort. One day, the braves were worn out from seeing that the chief's feet were not worn out. They carelesssly unrolled the mat over a place where flint arrowheads had been chipped. The arrowheads had long ago taken flight, but the needle-sharp chips remained. When the big chief's tender feet were wounded by these chips, he uttered a series of whoops which made the nearby aspen tree leavews quiver so hard that they have been trembling ever since.
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