"'Well,now you watch the bone and my hands,too,for they are quick and cunning.'
"OLD-man began to sing the gambling song and to slip the bone from one hand to the other so rapidly and smoothly that they were all puzzled.Finally he stopped singing and held out his hands--both shut tight,and both with their backs up.
"'Which of my hands holds the bone now?'he asked them.
"Some said it was in the right hand and others claimed that it was the left hand that held it.OLD-man asked the Bear to name the hand that held the bone,and the Bear did;but when OLD-man opened that hand it was empty--the bone was not there.Then every-body laughed at the Bear.OLD-man smiled a little and began to sing and again pass the bone.
"'Beaver,you are smart;name the hand that holds the bone this time.'
"The Beaver said:'It's in your right hand.
I saw you put it there.'
"OLD-man opened that hand right before the Beaver's eyes,but the bone wasn't there,and again everybody laughed--especially the Bear.
"'Now,you see,'said OLD-man,'that this is not so easy as it looks,but I am going to teach you all to play the game;and when you have all learned it,you must play it until you find out who is the cleverest at the playing.
Whoever that is,he shall be chief under me,forever.'
"Some were awkward and said they didn't care much who was chief,but most all of them learned to play pretty well.First the Bear and the Beaver tried it,but the Beaver beat the Bear easily and held the bone for ever so long.Finally the Buffalo beat the Beaver and started to play with the Mouse.Of course the Mouse had small hands and was quicker than the Buffalo--quicker to see the bone.The Buffalo tried hard for he didn't want the Mouse to be chief but it didn't do him any good;for the Mouse won in the end.
"It was a fair game and the Mouse was chief under the agreement.He looked quite small among the rest but he walked right out to the centre of the council and said:
"'Listen,brothers--what is mine to keep is mine to give away.I am too small to be your chief and I know it.I am not warlike.
I want to live in peace with my wife and fam-ily.I know nothing of war.I get my living easily.I don't like to have enemies.I am going to give my right to be chief to the man that OLD-man has made like himself.'
"That settled it.That made the man chief forever,and that is why he is greater than the animals and the birds.That is why we never kill the Mice-people.
"You saw the Mice run into the buffalo skull,of course.There is where they have lived and brought up their families ever since the night the Mouse beat the Buffalo playing the bone game.Yes--the Mice-people al-ways make their nests in the heads of the dead Buffalo-people,ever since that night.
"Our people play the same game,even to-day.See,"and War Eagle took from his paint sack a small,polished bone.Then he sang just as OLD-man did so long ago.He let the children try to guess the hand that held the bone,as the animal-people did that fateful night;but,like the animals,they al-ways guessed wrong.Laughingly War Eagle said:
"Now go to your beds and come to see me to-morrow night.Ho!"
