“One time long while ago, Shipahap, the blue squirrel, live in the forest. All day he leap on the trees. At night he swing in his nest on top of Talala, the white cedar. He never think of himself and who he is till Wuloawa, the black fox, came along. Wuloawa say to him, Shipahap, you are not really one of us. My father was black and your father was black but your mother was gray and you are blue. That is no color for a squirrel. Shipahap listened politely but say nothing till Woapink, the possum, who is almost white and knows very much of the world, came along. Shipahap, he said, I can only hang by my tail on a branch of the tree but you can fly happy from one tree to another. You are really a bird and don’t know it. Nunscheach, the she-bear, come crashing through the woods. What is all this about? she say. And when she hear, she say, Shipahap, you live high in the trees. You don’t belong with us on the ground. It is very plain you are of the race that go suspended in air. You are a bluebird, that’s what you are. But I can’t sing, Shipahap said. I only cough and make kissing sounds with my mouth. That, say Nunscheach, is because you live too long with squirrels. Now you go to your own people, the bluebirds. They will show you how to sing and eat little worms.” Stone Girl broke off. “I tell you it is a long story. It is too long perhaps?”

“No, not at all. Please go on,” Ohum, the grandmother, begged her, and Stone Girl continued.

“Well, Shipahap, the squirrel, don’t like to eat little worms. He rather stay where he was and be squirrel but he always hear that Woapink, the possum, is very wise, and Nunscheach, the she-bear, must not be crossed, so he let Nunscheach, the she-bear, and Woapink, the possum, and Wuloawa, the black fox, take him to Schwanacook the horned snake. But Schwanacook say, it is not him who does magic things like make water both fall down from the sky and up from the ground. It is his cousin, Shachamel, the straight fish that white people call the eel. He is very powerful. It is he who tells the sun in the evening when to set and in the morning to rise. So they went to Shachamel, the straight fish, who came up out of the water to watch Shipahap fly in the trees. You are not Shipahap, the squirrel, but Tshimalus, the bluebird, he said, and what are you doing with a long tail? The Great Spirit gave Tshimalus a nice short tail. And what are you doing with four feet and four claws? It is not seemly for a bluebird to have more than two feet and two claws. So Shipahap gave up his long bushy tail and his back feet and claws. Then Wuloawa, the black fox, and Nunscheach, the she-bear, and Woapink, the possum, and Schwanacook, the horned snake, and Shachamel, the straight fish, took him to the bluebirds. Here is your brother, Shipahap, they said, but the bluebirds gave one look at him and took themselves high up in the trees. He is not one of us, they said. And when Shipahap tried to show them how he could fly through the trees, he fell to the ground. He couldn’t leap from limb to limb any more without his long bushy tail to guide him and he couldn’t catch fast without his back claws to hold him. And now he was neither Tshimalus, the bluebird, or Shipahap, the squirrel, but an outcast like Skaak, the skunk, and must live by himself, for nobody will live with him.”