However , in spite of their warnings , the girl left the hut in the direction of the lake . Very soon she came back weeping , and sobbed out : ' I met some one in the village who lives in my country , and he told me that my mother is very , very ill , and if I do not go to her at once she will be dead before I arrive . I will return as soon as I can , and now farewell . ' And she set forth in the direction of the mountains . But this story was not true ; she knew nothing about her mother , only she wanted an excuse to go home and tell her family that their prophecies had come true , and that the buffalo was dead . Balancing her basket on her head , she walked along , and directly she had left the village behind her she broke out into the song of the Rover of the Plain , and at last , at the end of the day , she came to the group of huts where her parents lived . Her friends all ran to meet her , and , weeping , she told them that the buffalo was dead . This sad news spread like lightning through the country , and the people flocked from far and near to bewail the loss of the beast who had been their pride . ` If you had only listened to us , ' they cried , ` he would be alive now . But you refused all the little girls we offered you , and would have nothing but the buffalo . And remember what the medicine-man said : `` If the buffalo dies you die also ! '' ' So they bewailed their fate , one to the other , and for a while they did not perceive that the girl 's husband was sitting in their midst , leaning his gun against a tree . Then one man , turning , beheld him , and bowed mockingly . ` Hail , murderer ! hail ! you have slain us all ! ' The young man stared , not knowing what he meant , and answered , wonderingly : ' I shot a buffalo ; is that why you call me a murderer ? ' ' A buffalo -- yes ; but the servant of your wife ! It was he who carried the wood and drew the water . Did you not know it ? '
` No ; I did not know it , ' replied the husband XXXXX surprise .
If So about at before behind in into on to