The Story of Ab

The Story of Ab, by Stanley
Waterloo

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Title: The Story of Ab A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man
Author: Stanley Waterloo
Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8644] [Yes, we are more than

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[Illustration: GREAT TRUNK SHOT DOWNWARD AND
BACKWARD PICKED UP THE MAN AND HURLED HIM YARDS
AWAY]

THE STORY OF AB
A TALE OF THE TIME OF THE CAVE MAN
BY
STANLEY WATERLOO
1905
Author of "A Man and a Woman," "An Odd Situation," etc.

INTRODUCTION.

This is the story of Ab, a man of the Age of Stone, who lived so long
ago that we cannot closely fix the date, and who loved and fought well.
In his work the author has been cordially assisted by some of the ablest
searchers of two continents into the life history of prehistoric times.
With characteristic helpfulness and interest, these already burdened
students have aided and encouraged him, and to them he desires to
express his sense of profound obligation and his earnest thanks.
Once only does the writer depart from accepted theories of scientific
research. After an at least long-continued study of existing evidence
and information relating to the Stone Ages, the conviction grew upon
him that the mysterious gap supposed by scientific teachers to divide
Paleolithic from Neolithic man never really existed. No convulsion of
nature, no new race of human beings is needed to explain the difference
between the relics of Paleolithic and Neolithic strugglers. Growth,
experiment, adaptation, discovery, inevitable in man, sufficiently
account for all the relatively swift changes from one form of primitive
life to another more advanced, from the time of chipped to that of
polished implements. Man has been, from the beginning, under the
never resting, never hastening, forces of evolution. The earth from
which he sprang holds the record of his transformations in her
peat-beds, her buried caverns and her rocky fastnesses. The eternal
laws change man, but they themselves do not change.
Ab and Lightfoot and others of the cave people whose story is told in
the tale which follows the author cannot disown. He has shown them as
they were. Hungry and cold, they slew the fierce beasts which were
scarcely more savage than they, and were fed and clothed by their flesh
and fur. In the caves of the earth the cave men and their families were
safely sheltered. Theirs were the elemental wants and passions. They
were swayed by love, in some form at least, by jealousy, fear, revenge,
and by the memory of benefits and wrongs. They cherished their young;
they fought desperately with the beasts of their time, and with each
other, and, when their brief, turbulent lives were ended, they passed
into silence, but not into oblivion. The old Earth carefully preserved
their story, so that we, their children, may read it now.

S. W.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.
I. THE BABE IN THE WOODS.
II. MAN AND HYENA.
III. A FAMILY DINNER.
IV. AB AND OAK.
V. A GREAT ENTERPRISE.
VI. A DANGEROUS VISITOR.
VII. THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS.
VIII. SABRE-TOOTH AND RHINOCEROS.
IX. DOMESTIC MATTERS.
X. OLD MOK, THE MENTOR.
XI. DOINGS AT HOME.
XII. OLD MOK'S TALES.
XIII. AB'S GREAT DISCOVERY.
XIV. A LESSON IN SWIMMING.
XV. A MAMMOTH AT BAY.
XVI. THE FEAST OF THE MAMMOTH.

XVII. THE COMRADES.
XVIII. LOVE AND DEATH.
XIX. A RACE WITH DREAD.
XX. THE FIRE COUNTRY.
XXI. THE WOOING OF LIGHTFOOT.
XXII. THE HONEYMOON.
XXIII. MORE OF THE HONEYMOON.
XXIV. THE FIRE COUNTRY AGAIN.
XXV. A GREAT STEP FORWARD.
XXVI. FACING THE RAIDER.
XXVII. LITTLE MOK.
XXVIII. THE BATTLE