THE SILVER BRACELET 81

discovered. The people must all be called away from
the prison house for a short time. That was the only
way!

All day long Maada had pondered about the
matter. She had tried to plan something that would
send all the merrymakers to another part of the
village and cause the guard to relax his vigilance for
a few short moments. But now, though the day had
almost ended, she had not been able to think of any-
thing. Filled with despair, she buried her face in the
cool moss and sobbed anew.

“What is the matter, little one?”

Maada sat up quickly, drying her eyes with a quick
brush of her hand. Shim the Foolish One stood beside
her, bending down with a perplexed, kindly smile
upon his wizened old face. Old Shim the Story-teller,
half Niska, half Haida, the clown of the village, who
was sometimes noisy and foolish and sometimes ex-
tremely cunning; who could tell stories that enthralled
his hearers; stories that were a combination of truth
and legend, which he related with a vividness and
queer twist of the imagination possessed by no other
Haida, Niska, or Tsimshian.

Among all the tribes there was no other story-
teller like Shim the Foolish One, who had been nick-
named Shim because his stories almost always dealt
with the exploits of Thaimshim the Wonder-worker,
greatest of all legendary characters of the Northland.