The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone

by Margaret A. McIntyre

  Women with baskets]

  "I will place leaves in it, and then it will hold berries," she said.

  One woman was making a bag of a bit of skin. She made holes near theedge of the skin and put a string through them and pulled themtogether. Another woman made a basket of birch bark in the same way.

  Skin bag with pull string]

  One day when the berries were about gone, Thorn saw a great herd ofreindeer going by.

  "Oh, look at all the reindeer, grandfather!" he cried. "Where are theygoing?"

  "When summer comes," said Flint, "they go to a colder country; and whensummer ends, they come back to the cave country."

  There were many reindeer in the herd, and their antlers looked like aforest of trees without leaves. A big bear with hungry eyes wasfollowing the herd.

  That evening a young hunter made a picture of a beautiful reindeer withhis head among the grasses. Another hunter made a picture of two deerthat he had killed, and two live deer. Still another man made a handlefor a knife. He carved it from bone. It was like a deer springing.The antlers were laid back on the neck, and the front legs were turnedunder the body; the hind legs lay along the handle.

  "Good!" said the other men as they looked at it.

  Herd of reindeer]

  CHAPTER XI

  THORN MEETS THE CHILDREN OF THE SHELL MOUNDS

  Every day Thorn worked for a little while at the chipping of stoneaxes, but he had plenty of time for play. One morning he ran to theriver and jumped on his raft.

  "Ha!" he said, "my other self jumped the stream with me. And now itleans over a shadow raft and reaches for a shadow pole."

  He looked about him. On the grass lay the long shadows of the trees.In the clear water were the pictured banks.

  "Everything has another self," he thought.

  As he grew busy with his bow, he heard loud talking, and looked up andsaw strange men and children coming along the other bank.

  "The men are coming to buy axes," he thought. "The children have comealong with them."

  The men jumped into the river and swam across and went to the stoneyard. But the children came swimming up around the raft like wildducks. Some of them had long hair that floated about on the water.

  "Are you Thorn, the cave boy?" one of them asked him.

  "Yes, who are you?"

  "I am Clam, a shell mound boy."

  Then the children came up around the raft and shook it so that Thornalmost fell off.

  "Stop, or I will shoot you!" he cried, laughing.

  "Oh, he will shoot us!" cried the children, and they hid behind oneanother, playing they were afraid.

  "Is that your bow?" Clam now asked. "We heard about it. Shoot for us."

  "Yes," said Thorn.

  He began to paddle to the bank, but the children crowded around theraft and quickly pushed it to shore. Thorn jumped off and began toshoot at the trees. The children went along with him and watched withbig eyes. One of the arrows struck a tree and stuck in the bark. Thechildren laughed and ran and pulled it out.

  "Do that again!" they cried.

  Thorn did it again to shouts and the clapping of hands. Then a boynamed Periwinkle threw up a piece of bark and cried, "Hit that!"

  Thorn tried over and over again, but he could not. At last he grewtired of shooting. Then the children crowded round him, and Clam said,"Come home with us. Show your bow to the other children."

  "How can I get there?" Thorn asked.

  "Swim across the river, then walk."

  "I cannot swim."

  The children laughed and thought that very strange, but Periwinklesaid, "Well, we will push you on the raft."

  "Yes, yes!" cried the other children.

  So Thorn told his grandfather that he was going home with the shellmound people. And when the men had bought their axes, the children allran down to the river together.

  Some of the boys quickly tied a wild grape vine to the raft. Then theycried, "Here we go!" and dived into the river and swam away, pullingthe raft. Laughing and shouting and splashing, the others jumped inand followed. They came up alongside the raft and pushed it with onehand and swam with the other.

  They dived into the river and swam away, pulling theraft]

  Before long, all the children on one side of the raft shouted and wavedtheir arms and dived. They came up on the other side of the raft.Then the rest of the children dived and came up far ahead of the raft.Thorn looked on in wonder. As they came near the other bank, the girlspulled up the yellow water lilies and tied them in their wet hair.

  The children walked along beside the river for a while. Hippopotamuseslay floating in the water, asleep in the sun. The children gave agreat shout and woke up the river horses, as they called them. Theanimals opened their big mouths;--and the snorts, grunts, yawns! Thornhad never heard anything like it.

  "What big teeth they have," he said.

  "Yes, and just to eat grass," said another boy.

  And soon some of the great rough things dived and came up with theirmouths full of reeds.

  A little farther along, Thorn saw beavers at work on the bank. Theywere carrying birch branches down to their homes beneath the littleround mounds. And once in a while a water rat or snake swam across theriver. Farther on, a flock of white swans floated. Their wings wereraised a little, and their shadows floated with them.

  Flock of white swans]

  The children stopped to watch them.

  "Pretty!" they said. "Swans and shadow swans!"

  So laughing and playing and seeing strange and beautiful things, Thornwalked a long way with the children. At last, far off, he saw a longpurple line.

  "That is the sea," Periwinkle told him.

  When they came to it, there was a big blue water with no shore on theother side. It was beautiful, and Thorn shouted as he saw thefoam-capped waves roll in and break on the white sand.

  Pointing to a place along the shore, the children said, "There is ourhome."

  The sea]

  CHAPTER XII

  AT THE HOME OF THE SHELL MOUND PEOPLE

  Dogs barked and ran up and down the shore among the people. Thechildren ran along to their home. They were not afraid of the dogs,but petted them. And the dogs jumped about the children and playedwith them and were glad to see them.

  The people of the shell mounds did not look just like the cave people.They were shorter and had rounder heads. But their eyebrows hung overtheir eyes, as the cave people's did. And they dressed in skins.

  Their houses were made of branches of trees and stones and dirt. Theywere set high up on shore where the waves could not reach them.

  Thorn walked about with the children and saw a great pile of shells.It lay far along the shore, and was higher than a man, and very wide.

  Clam and oyster shells]

  "What are you going to do with all these shells?" he asked Periwinkle.

  "Do with them?" laughed Periwinkle. "Why, nothing. We threw themaway. They show what good things we have had to eat, do they not,Foam?"

  Foam was a girl with white teeth.

  "Yes," said Foam, laughing. "They are shells of oysters and clams andperiwinkles that we have eaten."

  "Um-m! what lots of them you have eaten!" said Thorn, looking over thebig pile.

  "Yes," said Periwinkle, with a laugh, "we live on them."

  "But you see," Foam went on, "our people have lived here for a longtime--longer than my grandfather can remember. And the shell moundshave been growing all that time. There are many other shell heaps allalong this shore, where more of our people live."

  Thorn looked down to the water's edge and saw men pulling hollow logsdown to the shore.

  Dug-out boat]

  "They are going fishing in the dug-outs," said Periwinkle. "Come on,we will go with them."

  The boys ran down to the shore and jumped into a boat that the men hadpushed out into the water. Then the men also jumped in, and paddledout with sti
cks.

  "Why do you call these dug-outs?" asked Thorn, rubbing his hand alongthe side of the boat.

  "Because they are dug-outs," laughed Periwinkle. "You will see themmade some day."

  "Well, why do they not turn over?" Thorn asked next.

  "Because they are flat on the bottom."

  The dug-outs kept together and went a little way out to sea. One manhad a bone spear. He saw a fish lying on the bottom and speared it.

  "Oh, it is a flounder," said Periwinkle. "See, it is white on oneside. It lies on that side. It is gray on the top side, and both theeyes are there."

  Other men had long strings and bone hooks. They caught cod and herring.

  When the boats were well filled with fish, the men began to paddlehome. But before they reached the shore, the sky turned gray, and thesea grew rough, for the wind blew hard.

  "This is nothing," said Periwinkle, laughing, as he saw the whites ofThorn's eyes. "You should see it sometimes. The waves are as high asa hill! Then we do not go fishing, and we live on foxes or rabbits orbears or ducks, or anything that we can kill. When we get nothing byhunting, we kill the dogs."

  "Do the big waves ever turn the dug-outs over?" Thorn asked, with whitelips.

  "Yes, but we all swim."

  When the boats reached shore, the women stood waiting. They were gladwhen they saw the fish, and quickly took them out. Then they began tocook them.

  They began to cook the fish]

  One woman laid her fish on hot coals to cook. Another put big leavesaround hers and buried them in the ashes. One cooked hers in stillanother way. She went to a hole in the ground and lined it with askin. She poured water into the hole and then put in hot stones untilthe water grew hot. Then she put in her fish.

  When the fish were cooked, the women cut big pieces and gave them totheir families. The people took the fish in their hands and sat downon the sand and ate.

  The people took the fish in their hands]

  "Maybe you would like salt on your fish," said Foam to Thorn.

  She took a little in her fingers and put it on his fish.

  "That makes it taste better. Where do you get salt?"

  "We burn sea-weed and get it."

  When all the fish had been eaten, Periwinkle called, "They are going tohack down a tree. Come on, if you want to see it."

  As the boys ran through the woods, Thorn saw nothing but fir trees.

  "Have you no trees but firs?" he asked.

  "No, only firs--firs, little and big, as far as you can see."

  The boys followed the sounds that rang through the woods. Soon theysaw men busy about a tree. One man was hacking a ring around it nearthe ground. When that was done, he hacked another ring above thefirst. His stone ax did not cut deep. And the wood between the tworings stayed there; it did not fly off in chips. So both men began tobeat the wood between the rings with the flat side of their axes.Around and around the tree they went, and beat the chips to get themloose. Then, with a piece of antler, they worked under the chips untilthey came off. After that they hacked again in the rings, and againbeat the wood between, and worked off the chips.

  Cutting down a tree]

  "Oh, come and play in the sand," at last cried Periwinkle. "They willbe days hacking down that tree."

  The boys ran back to the shore and lay down in the warm sand. They sawthe purple sea, and the sea birds flying, and heard the waves breakingon the beach.

  A flounder]

  CHAPTER XIII

  THORN LEARNS TO SWIM

  After a little the boys jumped up and ran into the water to play withthe other children.

  Seaweed]

  A big green wave came rolling in, and the children quickly took hold ofhands. They jumped up as the wave broke over them. It knocked some ofthem down and stood Clam on his head. Somebody caught his feet, andthe others all laughed. He came up angry and choking, when anotherwave caught him and rolled him over again. After that the boys camecrowding around Thorn, waving their arms.

  "You must learn to swim," they cried. "It is easy. Make your arms gothis way and your feet this way"; and they showed him how.

  Thorn tried it and went straight to the bottom. The boys shouted.

  "Here is a log," they said. "Put your arms over that. It will keepyou up till you learn."

  Thorn learns to swim]

  Thorn kept on trying, and in a few days he could swim a little.

  "You do very well," said Foam.

  The next day, when the tide was out, the boys waded in and picked upperiwinkles and oysters and clams, and threw them up on the beach.

  When Periwinkle began to open his oysters, he took a brown bowl to putthem in. Once, in breaking a shell, his stone knife struck the bowland broke it.

  "Too bad," he said. "Mother liked that bowl. She made it herself, ofclay, and dried it by the fire."

  Clay bowls]

  "Of clay!" Thorn said, looking at pieces wonderingly. "I never saw abowl like that."

  Periwinkle threw the oyster shells and pieces of broken bowl up on theshell heap. "We throw all such things in a heap," he said. "Then theyare out of the way and will not cut our feet."

  After working for days and days, the men got the tree for the dug-outhacked down. Then they hacked off a log and dragged it down to theshore. Here they began to make the dug-out.

  They built a fire all along the top of the log. It burned down slowly.The men watched the fire and kept putting on more sticks. If it burnedtoo near the edge, they put on water or clay or wet moss to stop it.

  "You see, they burn out only the middle of the log and leave goodstrong thick sides to the boat," said Periwinkle.

  After the fire had burned down into the log a way, the men raked offthe hot coals. The wood beneath was burned to charcoal. The menscraped it off with stone scrapers. Then they put on more fire andagain burned the log.

  "The fire will burn down faster, now that the charcoal is scraped off,"said Periwinkle.

  The men worked for a long time, burning and scraping away, burning andscraping, until they had dug a little hollow all along the middle ofthe log.

  Then one man said, "We have worked enough."

  And the men dropped their scrapers and went off.

  The next day Thorn walked along the beach and picked up pretty shells.

  "These are for the folks at home," he said to Periwinkle. "They willput them on the strings around their necks."

  "Here is my bow," he went on, handing it to Periwinkle. "You may keepit. I can make another. I am going back to my grandfather's now."

  Periwinkle and Clam and some of the men went part way with Thorn. Theywalked for a long time through fir forests and then came to the forestsof oak and beech and ash and chestnut. Here Thorn left his friends,and waved his arm to them as he ran on to his grandfather's. The shellpeople went back to their home by the sea.

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE FEAST OF MAMMOTH'S MEAT

  One morning after Thorn had come back to his grandfather's cave, hewoke up with tears on his face.

  "Last night when I was asleep," he said to himself, "my shadow selfwent away to the home cave. And there it saw my mother and Pineknotand the baby sitting about the fire, just as they used to sit. Andthey were talking about me, saying that they wanted to see me. And Iwant to go home to see them."

  The homesick boy went into the woods for comfort; he loved to watch thewild things going about. Not far off, he saw a herd of mammothsfeeding. He never tired of looking at the big hairy elephants withtheir turned-up tusks and long snaky trunks. They were reaching up forthe tender leaves of the birch, or needles of the hemlock, and wouldcarry the green stuff to their mouths with their trunks. Young oneswith shaggy coats of woolly hair, were playing about their mothers oreating grass. Sometimes one of the big mothers would give her youngone a bunch of leaves. Then she would rub it gently with her trunk,petting it.

  The herd ate on toward the edge of the wo
ods. Then, following a bigmammoth, it left the forest and went toward a swamp.

  Thorn slipped down from his tree and ran to another one on the edge ofthe woods, where he could get a better view. From here he saw themammoths out in the swamp. Some were drinking, others were wallowing,and still others were throwing water over themselves with their trunks.After getting a thick coat of mud on their shaggy skins, the herd beganto leave the swamp.

  But one big mammoth did not leave with the others. He could not; hehad gone far out in the swamp. His feet sank in the soft mud; and whenhe tried to pull them out, he found them stuck fast. Then he began totrumpet. At this the whole herd grew uneasy and turned back and walkedround him, waving their trunks and trumpeting and throwing mud andwater.

  Mammoth trapped in swamp]

  Thorn well knew that a mammoth stuck in the mud meant meat for the cavefolks for many a day. So he lightly slid down the tree and ran to thestone yard with the news. The men there ran to the nearest caves withthe word, and it was sent on from cave to cave.

  The herd stayed with the mired mammoth all day. But when night fell,the other mammoths slowly left him, often turning back to touch himwith their trunks and to trumpet.

  A crowd of cave men had already gathered, and were waiting in the woodsuntil the herd should leave. They now made fires around the mammoth tokeep off the wolves and hyenas that had already begun to skulk about.And then they killed the mammoth with their spears.