Native American Legends
The Field Mice were singing and dancing in a circle
An American Indian Legend - Nation Unknown
A light on the plain in the middle of the night was an unusual
thing. But so merry were the mice they did not hear the "king,
king" of sleepy birds, disturbed by the unaccustomed fire.
A pack of wolves, fearing to come nigh this night fire, stood together
a little distance away, and, turning their pointed noses to the
stars, howled and yelped most dismally. Even the cry of the wolves
was unheeded by the mice within the lighted buffalo skull.
They were feasting and dancing; they were singing and laughing
-- those funny little furry fellows.
All the while across the dark from out the low river bottom came
that pair of fiery eyes.
Now closer and more swift, now fiercer and glaring, the eyes moved
toward the buffalo skull. All unconscious of those fearful eyes,
the happy mice nibbled at dried roots and venison. The singers had
started another song. The drummers beat the time, turning their
heads from side to side in rhythm. In a ring around the fire hopped
the mice, each bouncing hard on his two hind feet. Some carried
their tails over their arms, while others trailed them proudly along.
Ah, very near are those round yellow eyes! Very low to the ground
they seem to creep -- creep toward the buffalo skull. All of a sudden
they slide into the eye- sockets of the old skull.
"Spirit of the buffalo!" squeaked a frightened mouse
as he jumped out from a hole in the back part of the skull.
"A cat! a cat!" cried other mice as they scrambled out
of holes both large and snug. Noiseless they ran away into the dark.
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