Part 20

Then Antler said to the women and children, "These skins are ready to soften. Come, join hands and show Fleetfoot how we soften hard skins."

What a noisy time they had for a little while! Each group wanted to finish first. Some of them stamped the skins, and kept time by singing. Others pounded the skins with their hands, and still others pounded with hammers of reindeer horn.

They had such a merry time that Fleetfoot could not keep still. He was soon stamping and singing as well as any one.

When the skins were softened, Antler told Fleetfoot that once her people chewed the skins. But since they had found an easier way, they chewed only the edges they wished to sew.

And so Fleetfoot began to learn lessons of the Bison clan. But once he was the teacher. It was when he showed Flaker what happened the day Pigeon played with hot stones. Flaker told his mother, and Antler told Greybeard. And then Greybeard asked Fleetfoot to drop the hot stones in the water again.

All the Cave-men gathered around to see what Fleetfoot did. When the steam began to rise from the water, they stepped back. But when they saw that the child was not afraid, they came forward cautiously.

When the water began to bubble, they were all filled with fear. They looked upon Fleetfoot in silence. They called him a wonderful child.

#THINGS TO DO#

Tell a story about dressing skins. Draw pictures which will show all that is done in dressing the skin.

Dramatize the part of the story that tells what Fleetfoot taught the Bison clan. Draw a picture of it.

Make a song that people might sing in stamping upon the skins.

Make a song to sing while beating the skins.

XVI

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What kind of clothes do you wear in winter? What do you think the Cave-men wore? Can you think how they learned to fit skins to their bodies? What part of an animal's skin could they use for sleeves? What part could they use for leggings?

How do you think they learned to make mittens and gloves?

How many ways do you know of fastening garments? Which of these do we use? Which of these do you think the Cave-men used?

What did they use instead of a needle? What kind of thread did they have?

How the Cave-men Protected Themselves from the Cold

One morning Fleetfoot started out of the cave, but a cold wind drove him back. Snow had fallen during the night, and the air had grown very cold. It was not fit for a bare-backed boy to go out on such a day. So Fleetfoot stayed in the cave all day long.

All the Cave-men stayed in the cave nearly all the day. Once Chipper went out and found fresh tracks. He followed the tracks until he came within close range of a reindeer. But his bare arms shook with the cold, and he missed his aim.

The next day was bitterly cold. The river was frozen almost into silence. Only the ripples of the swiftest currents laughed aloud at the frost. The snow was deep on the hillsides. It was deeper in the valleys, and the narrow ravines were almost filled with snow.

The third day was still very cold and everybody was hungry and cross. The children were crying for food, and since Antler had nothing to give them, she was trying to get them to play.

At length the children began to take turns at playing they were cave-bears. Now it was Fleetfoot's turn to be the bear, and when Antler saw him she laughed.

The Cave-men looked up in surprise. Everybody was so hungry and cross it seemed strange to hear any one laugh. But Antler really was laughing.

Fleetfoot had found a cave-bear's skin on a ledge in the cave. He had wrapped it around him so that he looked like a little cave-bear. The children kept calling him "little bear," and he was trying to act like one.

Soon all the people were laughing. They forgot, for the time, how hungry they were. And the next day they had meat, for it was warm enough to go hunting.

Many times after that the children played cave-bear. Many times the people laughed when they saw the children dressed in cave-bears' skins. Once when Antler looked at them, she got an idea about making clothes.