The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone | Page 5

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 puppy saw something in the woods and ran after it.
Pineknot called to him, "Come here, Wow wow!"
And the call came back from the rock, "Wow wow!"
"Oh, hear my talking shadow, brother," said Pineknot.
"Yes," said Thorn, laughing, "let us talk a while with our talking shadows."
So they lay down on the ground and began to call.
[Illustration: So they lay down on the ground and began to call.]
"Ho, there!" called Thorn.
"Ho, there!" came back from the rock.
"Come here, talking shadow."
"Shadow," was the answer.
"We want to see you," called the boys.
"See you," said the echo.
"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the boys.
"Ho, ho!" laughed the talking shadow.
That evening Pineknot came running to the cave, calling, "O Thorn, I was coming along on the high rock, and I heard little cries. I crawled through the bushes and looked over and saw a nest full of young eagles. They were skinny and had no feathers on their bodies. The nest was made of sticks; and oh, it was big, and there was a lot of feathers in it!"
[Illustration: A nest full of young eagles]
Pineknot stopped for breath.
"Go on, go on," said Thorn, "tell more."
"As I looked, a shadow bird went over the rock," said Pineknot; "and then down dropped the mother eagle with a snake in her claws."
"Oh," cried Thorn, "I wish I