Chapter I: Strongarm's Family

It was spring, thousands of years ago. Little boys snatched the April violets, and with them painted purple stripes upon their arms and faces. Then they played that enemies came.

"Be afraid!" shouted one, frowning; and he stamped his foot and shook his fist at the play enemies.

"I am fine!" called the other; and he held his head high, and took big steps, and looked this way and that.

The little brothers were named Thorn and Pineknot. Their baby sister had no name. The children looked rough and wild and strong and glad. The sun had made them brown, the wind had tangled their hair. Their clothes were only bits of fox skin. Their home was the safe rock cave in the side of the hill.

Near the children a little goat was eating the sweet new grass. She was tied with a string made of skin. Thorn stroked her and, laughing, said,

"Let us put the baby on the goat's back and see her run."

"Oh, that would be fun!" cried Pineknot, and he ran and untied the goat.

Laughing, Thorn put the baby on the goat's back. The little fingers clung to the goat's hair.

Then Thorn struck the goat and shouted, "Run!"

The goat ran; the baby laughed; Pineknot danced and clapped his hands. All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs. The baby fell off, and rolled over and over on the ground. She cried out, though she was not hurt. And the boys laughed and shouted till the woods rang.

After a while Pineknot thought of the goat; he had not tied her.

"Where is the little goat? Oh, there she is up among the rocks. She did not run away, Thorn."

"No," said Thorn, "she will not run away now, for we pet her and give her things to eat. Mother feeds her, too."

"Oh, but she was a wild one when father brought her home," said Pineknot. "Father killed the mother goat and caught the young one alive. He said that he would keep her at the cave. Then some day when he had killed nothing on the hunt, and we were hungry, he would kill the goat."

"We will ask father not to kill her, but let us keep her for a pet," said Thorn.

As the boys were talking, from far away through the forest came a big, merry song:

"The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!
The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!"

"It is father coming from the hunt," said Thorn, jumping to his feet.

"He is bringing wild horse meat. Good, good!" cried Pineknot.

Thorn threw the baby on his back, and together the boys ran into the forest to meet their father.

The forest--oh, it was beautiful! The trunks of the old trees were big and rough and mossy. And there were tall ferns and gray rocks and little brooks, and there was a sweet smell of rotting leaves.

"The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!"

still sang the young hunter, shaking his red hair gaily. He was not tall, but his legs were big, for he ran after the wild horse and deer and ox. And his arms were big, because he threw a great spear and a stone ax. His name was Strongarm.

The boys came running up to their father. They pointed to the meat on his shoulder, and laughed and shouted and clapped their hands.

"We shall not go hungry to-day!
We shall not go hungry to-day!"

they sang as they danced along.

"Ho, ho, ho!" sang Strongarm to his wife, as he went into the cave. He threw the horse meat upon the floor with a loud laugh, and lay down on a bear skin to rest.

The cave was a big room with a high roof. The floor was of dirt and very hard. The walls were limestone rock in beautiful rough layers, one upon another. From the roof the limestone hung in long pointed shapes, like icicles.

A fire burned brightly on the floor, while the smoke rose slowly and went out at a hole in the roof. The walls and the roof were blackened by smoke.

Strongarm's young wife was named Burr. She was glad when she saw the meat. She took her stone knife quickly and cut up the meat, and threw the pieces on the hot coals. While the fire blazed and snapped and cooked the meat, the boys looked on with hungry eyes.

When the meat was done, Burr pulled it from the fire with a long stick. The boys and Strongarm snatched it up and tore it to pieces with their white teeth.

"Um-m! how good and tender and juicy!" said the boys, grinning, and smacking their lips.

When the meat was all gone, the bones were broken and the sweet marrow scraped out and eaten; for that was good, too.

While the family was still eating, a big black bear came along. He smelled the meat, and put his great rough head in at the door and sniffed.

"Bear!" shouted Strongarm, jumping to his feet.

Burr and the boys cried out and quickly ran away to hide. Strongarm snatched a blazing log and struck the bear. He was burned and hurt, and he grew angry. He stood up on his hind legs and growled and showed his sharp teeth.

Strongarm snatched his ax and made for the bear, but he had gone. His growls sounded farther and farther away. Still Strongarm stood with his ax ready, his heart thumping and his eyes big. When he saw that the bear was not coming back, he dropped his ax with a gruff laugh. Then Burr and the boys came creeping out of their holes. And they all laughed and talked at once, telling how scared they had been.

The growls of the bear still sounded through the woods, so the boys ran to the door to see him.

"There he goes!" cried Pineknot with wide eyes, pointing.

"How big he is!" cried Thorn; "I shall make his picture."

Thorn ran back into the cave and quickly threw a pineknot on the fire. It blazed up and made all the cave light. He broke a piece of limestone from the wall and picked up a sharp stone from the floor. Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the bear. After a while he held up the piece of limestone with the picture scratched on it.

"O mother," said Pineknot, laughing hard, "see Thorn's picture of the bear. It shows his big body and his long head and his little ears."

"That is the very bear that made us run," said Burr, laughing.

All this time Strongarm had been making a picture of wild horses. He now held up the picture, scratched on a piece of deer antler.

"See, this horse has his ears up," he said. "He heard me coming. Here I am with my spear."

Burr and the boys crowded round and said, "Oh!"

While Strongarm and the boys were making pictures, the baby had been tumbling about on the floor. She crept around or pulled herself to her feet by holding to the rough places in the wall. After a while she grew sleepy; then her mother took her in her arms and sang this song:

"Little child!
Little sweet one!
Little girl!
Though a baby,
Soon a-hunting after berries
Will be going.
Little girl!
Little sweet one!
Little child!"

The baby went to sleep, and Burr laid her on a bear skin on the floor. Soon afterwards Pineknot fell asleep on another skin, and in a little while Thorn lay beside him. Then Burr put ashes over the coals, while Strongarm threw burning logs before the door. Soon all was quiet in the cave. The cave folks had gone to sleep.