One evening in the fall of the year, far-away in the North, on the shores of a great lake, there were sitting around the camp-fire a party of Beaver Indians. The winter had already set in, for the ice comes early, and it is very cold when the sun has gone to rest.

Hocini, the oldest man of the party, had fallen asleep. Around the moose-skin tents were scattered bits of wood, dried fish hung on racks, and five dogs, used in winter for drawing moose and caribou, were sleeping as near as they dared to be, to the warm fire, for the Indians are very cruel to their dogs, who really are very good to work so hard for masters who do not allow them to get near enough to the fire to warm themselves. The hoot owls had begun to make their strange noises and open their big, round eyes, for night was their day, and they must hunt food when they could see best, which was in the dark.

Away on the far-flung reaches of the hills the wolf began to cry and moan. He is a big animal of grayish color, sometimes seven and a half feet from the tip of his tail to his nose-end. Many say he came originally from Siberia when there was a land crossing from Alaska to Siberia, and that his great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers and many of his relations way back in the years of long ago came to visit our Northland, and liked it so much they did not return to the land of their birth. That land is now divided from Alaska by the waters that flow from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, so if he did ever want to go back to visit his relations in Siberia, he would have to swim, for no craft that go to Siberia for furs would care to have him for a passenger as he has a bad disposition, and cannot be depended upon when he is hungry.

While the Indians were sitting by the fire they suddenly saw a man passing along in the dusk. He was carrying on his back a strange blanket which was sewn with caribou sinew for thread, as the Indians had no cotton thread. It was made of dozens and dozens of muskrat skins covered with fish-scales all sorted as to color and size, and the lining was made of many, many squirrel-skins also covered with fish-scales, which were also well matched for color, making a beautiful and very warm water-proof covering for his body.

“Where are you going and what are you going to do?” asked an old man of the tribe.

“I’m going to become a young man again,” he replied.

“How will you do that?” asked another old person.

“We will go with you,” said one of the party, “for we like youth, for then we can hunt the beaver and moose in far-away mountains.”

“Do as you please,” the stranger replied indifferently.

“Let us go,” said a young brave to two of his brothers-in-law, and they got up and went to their tents to get their bows and quivers and long hunting moccasins, for it had rained in the morning, and the ground was not yet dry.

The stranger called to them, “Hurry!” and seemed out of sorts; but the Indians paid no attention to his mood and smiled at his haste.

After saying good-by to their people, they joined the stranger and walked through a dark wood until they came to a lake shore. Suddenly the strange man who had been walking ahead of them, said: “Xwui!” and went through a hole in the ice to the bottom of the deep lake where his wife and many children were awaiting him. He did not greet his wife as though he was fond of her, and to one of his children he said roughly:

“Tell the men on the shore to do as I have done.”

So the three men went to the hole through which the stranger had gone, and dove to the bottom. Then they walked to a settlement on the sands of the lake where there were many tents made of all kinds of skins—of moose, caribou, white deer, muskrat, lynx, beaver, and many skins the Indians had never seen before—and around the tents, walking about, were many people, who did not look at them.

The children of the strange Underwater Man would take bits of tough grass and make fish snares. Then they would wait for a big fish to come swimming along, swishing his tail and looking many ways with his strange eyes. The children would hold out the snare, saying, “To nai,” which means “fish” in the beaver language. Then the fish would swim into the snare and be caught, and would say, as he wriggled to free himself, “Do ha-s tei-ul tuk,” which means, “Do not kill me.” Then the children would take the fish to their mother, and she would cook it on hot stones that lay near a spring of boiling water that came from the bed of the lake.

The stranger called to the three men to come to his tent and eat. They did so, and he shared the fish with them.

Suddenly some one stepped on the foot of the man who had asked his brothers-in-law to go with the stranger. He looked up, and saw a giant frog standing on his left foot. He could not believe his own eyes, for he had never seen a frog so large. The frog said to him:

“I was once a man like yourself, but years ago, while picking berries on the shore of the lake, I fell into the water and became a frog. I have the secret, and if you wish to become a frog who can live both on land and in the water, which has its advantages, I will tell you where you can get some wonderful berries, red and sweet. Eat of them and lie down on the bottom of the lake, and after you have been sound asleep you will awake and be as you see me.”

The man who owned the beautiful blanket was angered that the frog had given the secret to them, and said: “I do not like it that the minds of your people are so intent on us.”

As the visitors were growing very short of breath from being so long under water, they said: “We will return to our people, but must go in a canoe as the water is making us ill.” So the Underwater Man loaned them an old canoe.

“Take care how you use my canoe, for it is not very good,” he called to them in a warning way. They paddled nearly to the shore. Then the canoe melted away. The men swam for the land, but when they reached it one was missing. The other two believed that their brother was dead, but as they sat on a big rock they saw his head appear and reappear, and once when his head was above water he called:

“I am held by the frog. Help me!” So the two swam out, but when they came near to the man he said:

“Go back; I am free, the frog has gone!”

The men swam ashore and stood up. When they looked again they saw a great jack-fish—they could not see their brother. The jack-fish swam toward them and walked on its tail upon the shore. Like magic it turned into a man, and they all returned to the camp, to tell the wonders of their adventure.

Suddenly the old man who had gone to sleep began to groan and cry out. His wife, who was also very old, said: “Hocini, my husband, is dreaming.” The old man then woke up and said in a frightened way: “The frog, the frog. Where is he?” and his wife said:

“Poor old man, the frog is in the lake,” and Hocini said: “I have been dreaming again,” and his wife said “Yes,” and laughed, and so did the old man.