Chickadee Read Online Free Page A

stumbled away, they had to hold their aching stomachs. They were still weeping with laughter when they reached the family camp. Nokomis sat down and tried to regain her breath.
    â€œWhat is it? What happened?” Omakayas took her grandmother’s hand, alarmed, and patted it anxiously.
    Nokomis tried to speak, but every time she spoke the name of John Zhigaag she burst out laughing again. She pointed at Chickadee.
    â€œHe will tell you!” she cried.
    So Chickadee told the story of how John Zhigaag tried to trick Nokomis, and how she had known exactly how to use her stick even though she was half-blind. Chickadee described Zhigaag’s hat and Omakayas could not help laughing too. That hat was Zhigaag’s symbol of prestige.
    Chickadee told his family how Zhigaag had tormented him that day, and how he’d gone off to hide. Makoons, especially, was immediately infuriated by the insults the old man had given to his brother.
    â€œYou’re not a weakling! You’re strong and bold, like me!”
    The truth was that both twins, who had started out so tiny, had never grown as big and strong as most boys their age. John Zhigaag knew this, thought Omakayas when she heard the names he’d called Chickadee. But he should never have shamed her son. She was glad that Nokomis had given the old man a sore head and had ruined his pride and joy, his hat.
    But even as Omakayas was thinking this, Makoons was thinking the same thing. He was thinking how unfair it was of Zhigaag to insult his brother, and how very bad it was that he tried to trip Nokomis on the path. She could have been hurt. It showed a lack of respect.
    â€œThere is only one way to make him respect us all,” muttered Makoons. He slipped away. It was dusk and a slim boy could hide near the old man’s shelter. There was still time to play one more trick on the old man, a trick that would make him leave Nokomis and Chickadee alone for good.

    That night, while everyone was asleep, Makoons crept into Zhigaag’s tiny bark shelter. First, he untied the old man’s dangling moccasin strings. He was sleeping in his moccasins, so this was a very difficult task. It took Makoons quite a while to undo the string. Then he had to wait while the old man snuffled and snorted and turned over in his sleep. Finally, he managed to tie the moccasins to each other. While he was doing this, he had another idea.

    Makoons took a piece of loose birchbark off a tree. Then he slipped back to his family’s camp and crept up to the fire, which was banked for the night and gave off just enough warmth for the family to sleep by.
    â€œI’ll be right back,” said Makoons. With a stick, he reached into the pot and smeared a large lump of fat on the piece of birchbark. Makoons sneaked furtively and quickly back to Zhigaag’s shelter, which rattled with his snores. He leaned in and smeared the back of the old man’s jacket with the fat. Then Makoons went back to his own sleeping corner inside his family’s wigwam and fell asleep in great satisfaction. He’d revenged his family, upheld his brother’s honor, and he felt certain that John Zhigaag would have only the greatest respect for his grandmother from now on.

    Late the next morning, at the time when John Zhigaag usually rose, there was a roar of hilarity from the end of the sugar camp. Makoons gave a sign to Chickadee, and both ran over to see what the excitement was about.
    To their satisfaction, John Zhigaag was wiggling out of his shelter like an earthworm, with the hat pulled low over his ears. His ankles were bound together with his moccasin laces. As he appeared at the entrance, dozens of mice, which had been feasting on the fat that coated his jacket, jumped off and scurried away. The mice had eaten most of the fabric along with the fat, and when the strings were untangled and he was able to stand, the halves of his fancy coat fell abruptly off his arms. The mice had