Chapter III: The Taming of the Dog

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.

"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!"

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 had seen it."

"The young eagles held their mouths open," Pineknot went on, "and their mother fed them with the snake, a little bit at a time. When the snake was all gone, the mother eagle waved her big wings and flew away. Then the young ones' heads fell down. They were asleep."

A day or two after that, Thorn came into the cave with an eagle's feather in his hand. And there were long red cuts and scratches on his body.

His father looked at him with a scowl.

"Men bring meat from the hunt, not feathers," he said roughly.

The boy looked pitiful; his mother felt sorry for him. She said to herself, "He has been to see the young eagles. The mother eagle saw him. He fought her alone with his little stone ax. He will be a great hunter!"

She looked at him proudly, and put cold water on the little torn body.

"Gr-r-r," growled Strongarm, scowling. "Would you make a baby of the boy? A fight is good for him. He will learn to make his way."