The horse lived in the village
for many years, until he became very old. And at last he died.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 7: From "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales." Copyright, 1890,
by George Bird Grinnell; published by Charles Scribner's Sons.]
XVII
THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER
Once upon a time there were five women who were in a field reaping corn.
None of them had any children, but they were all wishing for a child.
All at once they found a big goose egg, almost as big as a man's head.
"I saw it first," said one. "I saw it just as soon as you did," shouted
another. "But I'll have it," screamed the third, "I saw it first of
all."
Thus they kept on quarrelling and fighting about the egg, and they were
very near tearing each other's hair. But at last they agreed that it
should belong to them all, and that they should sit on it as the geese
do and hatch a gosling. The first woman sat on it for eight days, taking
it very comfortably and doing nothing at all, while the others had to
work hard both for their own and her living. One of the women began to
make some insinuations to her about this.
"Well, I suppose you didn't come out of the egg either before you could
chirp," said the woman who was on the egg, "But I think there is
something in this egg, for I fancy I can hear some one inside grumbling
every other moment: 'Herring and soup! Porridge and milk!' You can come
and sit for eight days now, and then we will sit and work in turn, all
of us.
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