The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone | Page 4

went on, "she used a little bone to
push the thread through the skins. One day she found a little bone with
a hole in it and took it home. She put her thread through the hole,
wondering how it would do, and began to sew. Soon there was a crowd
of women round her, pointing and saying, 'Oh, oh!' while the little bone
carried the thread."
"It must be fun to sew with a needle," said Pineknot.
Thorn was nearby making bone whistles and marrow scrapers, and
soon Strongarm came up dragging a little tree. He threw down his old
hunting club and said, "It is broken. I will make a new one."
[Illustration: Broken hunting club]

With his stone ax he hacked off the top and roots of the tree; then he
stripped the bark from the small end, and rubbed it with sandstone.
"It must be smooth or it will hurt my hand," he said to the boys who
stood watching him.
"In the old days," he said, rubbing away, "the cave men had nothing to
fight with but a club. Before they had even that," he went on, grinning,
"they fought with nails and teeth, or with a stick or a stone snatched
from the ground." Then laughing loud, he added, "No wonder that in
the old days people lived in trees, and ran if they saw a wildcat."
"I should be sorry if you had nothing to hunt with but a club, father,"
said Pineknot, making a long face. "We should go hungry oftener than
we do now."
After they had gone into the cave, the boys began to play with the baby.
In fun they pushed her into the room behind the one they lived in. She
cried out, because she was scared at the darkness.
"How loud her voice sounds in there," said Thorn.
"What is the rest of the cave like, father?" asked Pineknot. "Is it very
big?"
"Yes, it goes far back into the hill," said Strongarm. "I have never been
to the end of it, myself."
"Show it to us, father," said Thorn; and he ran to get a burning knot.
Strongarm took the torch and led the way into the next room. He held
the torch up high. The light looked small and dim in the darkness of the
big room. They went on and came to room after room and to long halls.
Some places were narrow and low, so that they had to crawl on hands
and knees to get through; and all the walls and floors were wet and
slippery.
Everywhere in the cave the limestone showed beautiful rough layers. In

all the rooms long pointed rocks hung from the roof or stood up from
the floor. Water dripped from each pointed rock above, and fell on the
pointed rock just beneath. In many places two pointed rocks touched
each other and formed a great, rough, beautiful pillar. In some of the
rooms the walls and pillars were lovely and white, glistening in the
torch light.
The boys looked at all these things in wonder.
When at last they had come back to their own room, Pineknot asked,
"Father, what is the water that we heard trickling in the cave?"
"It is a stream. It used to come down through that hole," said Strongarm,
pointing to the smoke-hole. "But afterwards it went down another
way."
He sat thinking for a while. Then he said, "When I fought with the
other young hunters and carried off your mother, I wanted a cave to
bring her to. I came to look at this one. Bears were living here then. But
one evening while they were all away, I came in and made a fire at the
door."
Strongarm laughed long and loud, and the rest laughed to hear him.
"Since then the cave has been mine," he went on. "Well, you should
have seen the floor! It was covered with old bones that the bears had
brought in to gnaw. I threw them all out and broke off the rocks that
stood up from the floor. That gave more room. Then I brought your
mother here."
"It has made us a good safe home," said Burr, nodding her head.
After a while Thorn jumped up and said, "I want some honey."
He took a burning stick from the fire and ran out. He walked through
the forest and looked and listened. At last he saw bees go into a hole in
a hollow tree.

"Here is my bee tree!" he cried, waving his torch.
Bees were in a crowd about the hole, crawling over each other, and
going in and coming out. Thorn could hear them humming from where
he stood. He swung his torch from his arm; then, hand over