The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone | Page 5

hand, up
the tree he went.
When he came to the bees' nest, he threw his leg over a branch. He
swung the smoking stick back and forth. The bees flew off humming
angrily. Thorn quickly broke off the yellow honeycombs and put them
into his bag. Then down the tree he slid, followed by the angry bees.
[Illustration: The bees flew off humming angrily]
"Oh, oh, oh!" he cried, as he ran like a deer. When he went into the
cave with the wild honey, the baby held out her little hands. He gave
her some and said, "You are sweet. You are honey."
So the baby came to be called Honey.
At sundown, the boys went out into the woods to set the traps. A
beautiful mother deer and her fawn were drinking at a brook. Crickets
sang under old bark, and frogs on the edge of the pond. And birds were
singing their low sweet evening songs.
[Illustration: The edge of the pond]
The little hunters went straight on from trap to trap. But they found no
fox or wolf or wildcat in any of them. They were sorry. One trap was
sprung.
"Something has been here, and the meat is gone," said Pineknot. "We
must set the trap again."
Thorn quickly bent down a little hickory, and tied a string to the top.
Then he raised one end of a big rock and put a loop of the string around
it.
Pineknot was busy setting a trigger under the rock. All this time, Thorn

stood by, playing with the string, pulling it and letting it go, pulling and
letting go.
"Listen," he said, "it sings like the wind." Pineknot had a stick in his
hand and, for fun, set it against the string. When Thorn let the string go,
the stick was shot out of Pineknot's hand, and against his bare body. He
yelled, and Thorn opened his eyes in wonder.
[Illustration: And, for fun, set it against the string]
Pineknot rubbed the place, but picked up the stick, stood aside, and set
it as before. Then he said, "Do that again."
Thorn did it again, and the stick flew among the trees. Over and over
again they tried it, and every time the flying string threw the stick.
"Now," said Thorn, "I shall bend a little branch as that tree was bent,
and I shall tie a string to the ends."
He did so; and all the way home he kept shooting with his little bow,
and wondering about it.
[Illustration: Broken hunting club (2nd version)]
CHAPTER III
THE TAMING OF THE DOG
[Illustration: Cattle horns]
Early one morning Strongarm went out to hunt. Cattle with wild eyes
were eating grass on the edge of the wood. Strongarm dropped to his
knees and slowly, carefully, crawled through the bushes toward them.
"Just a little nearer, and I will throw my spear!" he thought.
A dry branch snapped beneath him! The wild cattle threw up their
heads, and with a hurry of feet were soon lost to sight.

Frowning, the hunter got up from his knees and walked on. He saw a
herd of mammoths, but he could not kill one of the big hairy elephants
alone, so he turned away. He hunted all day long. He saw plenty of
wild animals, but he could not get near enough to kill one. He saw wild
ducks and grouse, but he had not brought his sling.
"Must I go hungry to-day?" he growled, frowning.
From far off came the yelping of dogs.
"The pack is hunting!" he shouted, with a roaring laugh. "I will follow
the wild dogs and take some of the meat they leave!"
Led by the sounds, he found the dogs running down a bison. They
followed it until it was too tired to fight, and then pulled it down and
killed it. They ate all the meat they wanted and went away. Then
Strongarm cut meat from the bison.
On his way home he saw a nest of wild puppies in a hollow tree.
"Um," he grunted, "the little wild goat that the children play with is
quiet and tame. If a wild puppy grew up with them, would it be tame?
Would it help me to hunt?"
He picked up a puppy. When he got home, he dropped the little ball of
soft black wool between the two boys lying on a bear skin.
Then there were merry eyes, laughs, and soft calls:
"Here little pet!" and "Oh, the little sharp teeth!"
At last a tired little ball fell asleep in brown arms.
The puppy grew fast and was full of play. He followed the boys
everywhere, and they called him "Wow wow."
One day they were playing by the high rock, when the