N the days long ago, a frightfully ugly boy lived with his old grandmother not far from K'yâkime. The color of his face and his body was blue. He had a twisted nose and he was so dreadful to look upon that people feared him. Only the old woman, his grandmother, cared for him.

Now at this time, it had rained so much that the piñon trees were laden with nuts, and the datilas were heavy with fruit, and the gray grass and the red-top were so heavy with seeds that even when the wind did not blow they bent as if in a breeze.

But the people of K'yâkime could not go to the Southeastern Mesa where the nut trees and the datilas and the grass grew. They could not gather the nuts and the fruit and the seeds, because of a big, old Bear who claimed the country and all that grew upon it, for his own. Some of the brave young Bear was wicked and the people feared him.

One day the ugly little boy said to his grandmother, —  "I am going out to gather datilas and piñon nuts for you."

"Child! Child!" cried the old woman. "Do not go. Have you forgotten about the dreadful Bear? He would catch you and kill you."

"I am not afraid of him," said the boy, and he ran swiftly in the direction of the Southeastern Mesa.

He followed the trail called the Pending Meal-sack, and he climbed the path up Shoyakaskwe, and at last he stood upon the great Mesa top itself. No sooner had he begun to pluck the sweet datila fruit and eat it, than "Wha-a-a-a!" cried the old Bear; and he came rushing out of the nearest thicket toward the boy.

"Friend, friend, don't bite me!" shouted the boy.

"Don't bite me! It'll hurt! I came to make a bargain with you."

"I'd like to know why I shouldn't bite you!" growled the Bear. "What have you come to my country for, stealing my fruit and nuts and grass seed?"

"I came to get something to eat," replied the boy. "You have such a great quantity, surely you can spare a little."

"Indeed I have not," said the greedy Bear. "I will let you pick nothing at all. I will tear you to pieces."

"Don't, don't," said the boy, "and I will make a bargain with you."

"Who should talk of bargains to me?" yelled the Bear, cracking a small pine tree to pieces with his paws and teeth, so great was his rage.

"These things are no more yours than mine," said the boy; "and I'll prove it."

"How?" said the Bear.

"They are mine and not yours," cried the boy.

"They are mine!" snorted the Bear.

And so they might have wrangled till sunset had it not been for a suggestion that the boy made.

"Look here," he said. "Whichever one is certain of his rights on this Mesa, and of the things that grow on it, must prove it by not being scared by anything that the other does."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Bear in his big, coarse voice.

"That is a very good plan. I am perfectly willing to stand the test. But if you fail, I will eat you."

"All right," said the boy. "But listen to what you must do. First one of us must run away and hide, and then the other one must come on him suddenly and frighten him, if he can."

"I will be first," said the Bear, "for this place belongs to me." And he turned and went into the thicket. The boy walked around picking the datilas and eating them, and throwing the skins away. Presently the old Bear came rushing out, snapping the trees and twigs, and throwing them around at such a rate that it seemed as though a sand-storm was raging through the forest. And then he marched toward the boy, but the little fellow stirred never so much as a leaf, and kept on chewing the datilas.

Then the Bear went into the thicket and charged outright for the boy. He snarled and cried out in a terrific voice and grabbed the boy, but the boy pretended not to see him.

"By my senses!" exclaimed the old Bear. "You are a man, and I must give up. Now suppose you try me. I can stand as much frightening as you, and, unless you can frighten me, I tell you you must keep away from my datila and piñon patch."

Then the boy turned and ran quickly away toward his grandmother's house, singing as he went, —  "He of the datila patch frightened shall be! He of the piñon patch frightened shall be!"

"O, shall he?" cried his grandmother. "I declare I am surprised to see you come back alive and well."

"Hurry up, grandmother," said the boy, "and paint me as frightfully as you can."

"All right, my son; I will help you." So she blackened the right side of his face with soot, and painted the left side with ashes, until he looked like a real Demon. Then she gave him a stone axe of ancient time and magic power, and the boy ran back to the Mesa.

The Bear was wandering about eating datilas when the boy suddenly ran toward him shouting, "Ai ya-a-a!" and he whacked the side of a hollow piñon tree with his axe. The tree was shivered with a thundering noise, and the earth shook, and the Bear jumped as if he had been struck by one of the flying splinters. Then, recovering himself and catching sight of the boy, he exclaimed, — "How silly I am to be scared by that little wretch of a boy!" But when he saw the boy's face he thought surely that a Demon was after him.

The boy came nearer, and as he did so he whacked another tree with his magic axe and shouted in a louder voice. The earth shook so much and the noise was so great that the Bear nearly fell over with terror. And again, and still again, the boy came nearer, and each time he passed a hollow tree he struck it with his axe and shouted. The last time he hit a tree very close to the Bear and the old creature was thrown violently to the ground with the heaving of the earth and the bellowing of the sounds that issued forth. Picking himself up as fast as he could, never stopping to see whether it was the boy or a Demon, he fled eastward as fast as his legs would carry him, and he never stopped until he reached the high mountains.

"There!" said the boy. "It served him right. He has been living all these years on the Mesa where more fruit and nuts and grass seed grow than a thousand Bears could eat, and yet he has never let a single person from the town of K'yákime gather so much as a basket full."

Then the boy returned to his grandmother and told her what had taken place.

"Go," she said, "and tell the people of the village. Stand upon that high rock, and bid them take their blankets and baskets and go to the Mesa top and gather grass seed and datilas and piñon nuts, for they need fear no more.

The boy climbed up on the high rock, and told the news to the people. There was great rejoicing, and because the ugly boy had outwitted the frightfully wicked, old Bear they made him sit at the council of the wise fathers of the city.