THE PRIZE BASKET 123

Kish was obliged to watch the slave girl work upon
her masterpiece every day before she could go on
with her own. She studied Lana’s design carefully,
so that she could copy it.

The Haidas did not work the colored designs into
their baskets with colored straws and bear-grass as
the Tlingits did; they painted them on after the
baskets were finished. But Kish had often watched
the Tlingit slaves weaving the beautiful baskets of
the Northern tribe, and she knew something about
‘ dyeing the straws and bear-grass, so that her basket
was really very like Lana’s in every way. Kish be-
lieved that her plan would work out, and it might
have done so had it not been for the little dog Koots,
who loved the slave girl.

Koots was only a little, homely, lame mongrel
dog—one of the many dogs around the Haida village
—that Lana had taken care of when he was a tiny
puppy. Day and night he was always near her, his
bright adoring eyes fixed upon her wherever she was
or whatever she was doing.

Koots had shown so much intelligence that Lana
had taught him many tricks, one of which was to
find some article that belonged to his mistress, no
matter where she hid it. Round and round he ran
until he found the hidden object and proudly re-
turned to drop it at Lana’s feet. It was reward enough
to have her pat him and say, “You are a very clever

little dog, Koots. I hid that carefully and I did not