Atondido Stories
The Girl Who Always Cried
On the bank of a stream far in the West, Owl-man lived long ago
in a little house under the ground. He had very strange habits.
He always kept away from the Great Water and he dwelt for the
most part in the forest. He had very few friends, and he usually
went hunting by himself. He lived on toads and frogs and flies.
He would say but little, and when other people sat around him
talking pleasantly, he was always silent, gazing into space with
wide-open eyes, and trying to look wiser than he really was. Be-
cause of this, people thought he was very queer, and strange sto-
ries about him soon spread far and wide. It was said that he was
very cruel, and that he was silent because he was always brood-
ing over his past wickedness or thinking about some evil deed
he was soon going to do. And when children were troublesome
or disobedient, their mothers always frightened them into good-
ness by saying, "The Owl-man from the stream will come and
take you if you do not mend your ways." And although the Owl-
man was a solitary fellow he thus had great influence in all the
land.
Not far away lived a man and a woman who had one adopt-
ed daughter. Because she was the only child in the house she
was much petted, and she was never satisfied, and she cried and
fretted all the time, and kept always asking for things she could
not get. She disturbed all the neighbours round about so that
they could not sleep because of her constant wailing and com-
plaining. At last her foster-parents grew tired of her weeping
and they said, "The Owl-man will carry you off if you do not
stop crying." But still she pouted and fretted. And the old man of
the house said, "I wish the Owl-man would come and take her
away." Now the old man was a great magician, and as he
wished, so it came to pass.
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