"What portent do you see that makes you stare into the night so
anxiously?" he inquired.

"I am wishing for a sight of the midnight sun or the aurora
borealis," she replied.

"Too late for one an' too fur south for the other," Dextry
interposed. "We'll see the sun further north, though."

"Have you ever heard the real origin of the Northern Lights?" the
young man inquired.

"Naturally, I never have," she answered.

"Well, here it is. I have it from the lips of a great hunter of
the Tananas. He told it to me when I was sick, once, in his cabin,
and inasmuch as he is a wise Indian and has a reputation for
truth, I have no doubt that it is scrupulously correct.

"In the very old days, before the white man or corned beef had
invaded this land, the greatest tribe in all the North was the
Tananas. The bravest hunter of these was Itika, the second chief.
He could follow a moose till it fell exhausted in the snow and he
had many belts made from the claws of the brown bear which is
deadly wicked and, as every one knows, inhabited by the spirits of
'Yabla-men,' or devils.

"One winter a terrible famine settled over the Tanana Valley. The
moose departed from the gulches and the caribou melted from the