aren't."
"Aren't what?" said Firefly, getting wider awake.
"Aren't there," Firetop answered.
Firefly lifted her head and tried to roll over. If she had not been
tied she would have rolled out of bed. She looked down, too. The
branches were certainly empty.
What would you do if you were to wake up in the morning and find
yourself tied in bed and your father and mother gone and no breakfast
ready? Well, they did just the same thing! They simply yelled. They
had good strong lungs and they made a great deal of noise. When they
stopped, they heard a distant shout that sounded like their own. "Ow,
ow, ow." It came back to them from two different directions.
"That's not Father's voice," said Firetop.
"Nor Mother's," said Firefly.
"It's somebody's. It must be theirs. Let's call again," said Firetop.
They nearly split their throats that time. "Ow, ow, ow," they screamed,
and "Ow, ow, ow," came back from the forest and the river.
"It must be the spirits of the water and the trees, mocking us," said
Firetop. "It sounded just like us."
You see, they did not know what an echo was.
"I'm scared," said Firefly.
"I am too, a little," Firetop admitted.
"Let's not call any more. If we keep still, maybe the spirits won't
find us," whispered Firefly.
They snuggled down in the wolf-skins and kept very still. By and by
they heard a crashing sound in the underbrush not far away. They were
stiff with fright. They didn't dare even to breathe. Then came a loud
cry, "Hoo, hoo, hooooooo," and the crashing noise came nearer. It came
right under their tree. Then somebody's voice called, "Are you awake,
little red foxes, up in the tree?"
Two red heads instantly popped over the edge of the tree beds, and two
voices cried out something that meant, "Oh, we're so glad that you've
come back."
Limberleg climbed the tree and untied the children. It took them about
two seconds to get to the ground, and they didn't fall down either.
There under the tree they found Hawk-Eye. He was preparing breakfast.
He and Limberleg had gone down to the river-bank very early and had
found a whole colony of turtles. They had brought home four turtle-eggs
apiece. If I were an arithmetic, I should ask how many eggs there were!
It would have been of no use to ask the Twins. Neither they nor their
father and mother could have told you. They hadn't any of them learned
to count that far. Nobody could in those days.
They made short work of the eggs, even if they couldn't add or multiply
or divide. When they had finished eating them, they strapped their
skins on their shoulders once more and started up the river. All the
morning they tramped steadily along, looking for a good place to ford
it. The sun was already in the west, when suddenly Limberleg stopped at
a turn in the bluff.
"See, see," she cried. "Two rivers." They all stopped and looked. The
river forked at that point, or rather two smaller streams came together
making one big one.
There was a high V-shaped point of land between the two streams.
"Now we can cross," cried Limberleg, joyfully. She led the way, running
and leaping down the bluffs to the river's edge. The banks at this
point were sandy and the river full of stones. The current was swift,
but the water was clear and not very deep. Limberleg ran out on the
stones.
"Come," she called to the Twins. "Follow close after me." She leaped
lightly over the stones to the middle of the stream, where the river was
deepest. The children followed part way; then Firetop stood still on
one of the stones and looked at the swirling water. Firefly was on the
next stone behind him. The stone in front looked a long way off to
Firetop.
"I can't jump so far," he squealed.
"I can't either," wailed Firefly. "My legs aren't long enough."
"Jump," cried Limberleg, impatiently.
"We can't," shouted the Twins, beginning to cry.
You see, they were afraid of water, and it really wasn't much wonder,
for they had never even had a real bath in their whole lives. I've
known children to feel just the same way about water in these days.
They can't bear it, even on a wash-cloth.
Hawk-Eye was on the stone behind them. "Jump," he shouted, "or I'll
give you something to cry for." And that was the very first time that
any parent ever said that about giving them something to cry for, and
they've been saying it ever since, to my personal knowledge.
You see that, with Limberleg in front calling "Jump" and Hawk-Eye behind
saying such alarming things, the Twins were in a tight place. There was
nothing to do but jump. So Firetop took a flying leap, and Firefly
followed him. Unluckily she came just a little too soon. She jumped on
to Firetop. His feet flew out from under him, he lost his footing on
the stone, and they both rolled into the cold water.
The crying they had done before wasn't anything to what they did then, I
can tell you. That is, as soon as their heads were out of the water
again.
They might have been carried away by the current, if Hawk-Eye hadn't
instantly thrown his spear across to the farther shore and jumped in
after them. He seized one of them with each hand and waded with them to
land. Then he picked up his spear again from the ground where it had
fallen.
If you will believe me, the Twins held tight to their own little spears
all the time, even when they were under the water! It was all they had
to hold to, to be sure, and besides, they loved those spears more than
we love dolls and roller skates and marbles and baseball, all put
together.
Limberleg laughed at the dripping little figures.
"You look like a pair of water-rats," she cried. The Twins could not
see anything funny in that. Little streams of water trickled down their
backs, and they didn't like it. The rock that was on the point of land
between the two rivers was not far away from the place where they
landed.
"Let's go to the top," said Limberleg to the Twins. "That will warm you
up."
It was quite a steep climb, and I wish you could see what they saw from
that summit. They could look a long way up each of the two rivers and a
long way down the big one. There were deep, silent woods along the
shores. They looked back on the land between the two streams. They
were all beginning to be hungry again by this time, and they hoped that
they might see their supper wandering about somewhere over the rocks.
"We'll see who has the sharpest eyes," said Limberleg.
"I see something white right now, way down there in the bushes," said
Firefly. "It's bouncing around."
"I see it, too," said Hawk-Eye. "It's the tail of a deer. There's a
herd down there!" Hawk-Eye started down the rocks in a hurry. "I'll
not be gone long," he called back to Limberleg. "Get a fire started
before I come back."
Limberleg and the Twins watched Hawk-Eye until he disappeared in the
underbrush. Then she and the children began to gather wood for the
fire. Firetop found a piece of hard wood that was round. Limberleg
pointed the end of it with her flint knife. Then they hunted for a
piece of soft wood. In the soft wood Limberleg made a little hollow
place that would fit the end of the stick.
"Now, Firefly, you stay with me," said she. "I want you to gather
little tendrils of dry moss and watch beside me while I twirl the stick.
The moment I tell you to, you must drop little pieces of dry moss into
the hollow place in the wood. Firetop, you gather a great heap of
sticks here on top of the rock." Limberleg knelt on the edge of the
rock and began to twirl the stick between her hands. As she twirled she
mumbled a prayer to the fire god.
Firefly held the soft wood firmly in place while Limberleg worked. She
twirled and twirled until a tiny thread of smoke began to curl from the
hollow. "Drop in the moss," cried Limberleg. The smoke grew thicker.
Limberleg worked faster and faster. Soon a tiny flame burst forth.
Firefly fed the flame with the dried moss until it was big enough to
burn little twigs and dead leaves. Soon a brisk fire was burning.
Firetop had brought a great pile of wood to the rock, and had also found
some long willow branches to use in broiling meat.
"The fire is ready, but where is the food?" said Firefly. It was not
long in coming. Hawk-Eye soon appeared climbing up the rock with a
young doe on his shoulder. He and Limberleg skinned it and cut up the
meat, and they had all the broiled venison they could possibly eat for
supper.
"We shall have to spend the night here," said Hawk-Eye, when they
couldn't eat any more. "We couldn't find a better place anyway. There
is water around the rock except on the land side. We'll keep the fire
bright, and we shall be just as safe as if we were in the cave."
Hawk-Eye spread the fire in a long line across the land side of the
rock. He built a sort of wall of sticks and branches to feed it, and
all night long it blazed and smouldered. They spread their skins on the
rock and slept peacefully in its warm glow.
The next morning dawned bright and clear, and the whole family got up
with the birds. They had more venison for breakfast, and when that was
out of the way, Hawk-Eye said: "We'd better get across the other river
early. There's no telling how far we may have to go to-day, or what we
may find on the way."
"I hate to leave this place," cried Firefly, "it's so beautiful, and I
am sure there is lots of game here."
"I hate to leave the doe-skin behind," said Limberleg, "but of course I
can't dry and stretch and cure it while we are travelling."
"We can carry enough meat to last us all day," said Hawk-Eye, "and that
will save lots of time. We won't have to stop to hunt for our dinner."
He tied a great piece of meat over the shoulders of Firetop and Firefly
and Limberleg, and took the biggest piece on his own back, and off they
started.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three.
It would take too long to tell you all about what a time they had
getting across the river. It was deeper than the first one they
crossed, and if it hadn't been for a lucky accident, they might never
have got across at all. When they came to the water's edge, Firetop saw
some turtles sunning themselves on a log a little way down the stream.
The log had floated down the river and had caught against a dead branch
that stuck out of the water. They were not so afraid of the water now
they had really been in it.
Firetop thought it would be great fun to catch a turtle. He pointed
them out to Firefly. "Come on," was all he said, but she knew what it
meant, and at once the two children waded quietly out toward the log.
Wading in was altogether different from having to tumble in, anyway.
The turtles saw them coming, and just as the Twins reached the log, they
slid off into the water. One of them found one of Firetop's big toes in
the mud, and bit it.
Firetop screamed and tried to get away. Firefly didn't know what was
the matter, but she screamed too on general principles, and they both
grabbed at the log and tried to climb on to it. The log rolled over and
got loose from the branch that held it and started down-stream, with
both children clinging to it and yelling. They couldn't get up on it
because it kept turning over, but they held on because it was the only
thing there was to hold on to, and Firetop kept kicking with all his
might to get away from the turtle. Firefly did some kicking, too,
because she was trying to find the bottom with her feet and there wasn't
any bottom there. The current was not very swift at this point, and
though they didn't know it, the children were really swimming with their
legs, and they made the log go toward the other shore.
While all of this was happening, where do you suppose Hawk-Eye and
Limberleg were? They were chasing after them as fast as they could go,
but the children had quite a start and got farther away every minute.
The water was almost over Limberleg's head, and you know how hard it is
to walk in deep water. Besides, they had the meat. The meat that the
Twins were carrying got loose in their struggles and fell off in the
water. Perhaps the turtle saw it and decided that it was better eating
than Firetop's toe, or maybe he got homesick. I can't tell about that,
but anyway he let go. The Twins kept on reaching for the bottom and
kicking with all their might and screaming, too, and before long the log
ran its nose into the farther bank and they seized the branches of a
willow tree that hung over the water and pulled themselves up on the
shore.
In a moment Hawk-Eye and Limberleg came tearing up the river-bank to
them. They had come straight across the river, while the children had
been carried some distance by the current. You can just think how glad
they all were when they found that they were across and not a single one
of them had been drowned.
When Firetop told about the turtle, Hawk-Eye laughed and laughed.
Limberleg laughed a little, too. Firetop felt pretty sorry for himself,
but he wasn't really hurt, and in half an hour he had forgotten to limp.
The Cave Twins--by Lucy Fitch Perkins
CHAPTER FIVE.
THE TREE CLAN.
They walked a little way along the bank, looking for a good place to
cross the flat, green meadow that lay between the river and the forest.
Soon they came to a sort of path which led back into the woods.
Hawk-Eye looked at it very carefully. He even got down and examined the
wet ground at the water's edge. In the mud there were foot-prints.
"Isn't it a drinking-place for the wild creatures?" asked Limberleg.
Hawk-Eye grunted. "Like ourselves," he answered briefly. "There are
people living in these woods. That's the print of a man's foot."
Limberleg looked just as she would have looked if he had said, "There's
a pack of hyenas living in those woods." There was reason for it in
those days. The different groups of people in the forests had nothing
to do with one another, and when they met, they were much more likely to
fight than to be friendly.
"Can't we go up the river-bank and not go into the woods at all?" asked
Limberleg. For answer Hawk-Eye pointed down the river. Far away in the
green meadow they saw two mammoths feeding. Even at that distance they
looked like giant rocks looming out of the grass. Their long ivory
tusks gleamed in the sun.
"We can't go that way," said Limberleg, "and it's no use to go back."
"We'll go up the path to the edge of the wood, then follow the river,"
said Hawk-Eye. "Maybe no one will see us. It's the best we can do. Be
quiet and be quick."
He set off at a swift trot, his spear in his hand. The two children
followed with their mother.
"I see shadows moving in the trees," said Firefly. Both twins wished
very much that they were at home with Grannie just at that moment.
"They are following us, higher up on the bluff," Limberleg answered in a
low voice.
Hawk-Eye had seen all that they had seen, and more, but he said nothing.
He trotted on. Just then a chunk of mud and dirt came flying through
the air and struck Hawk-Eye on the head. Stones, sticks, and all sorts
of missiles followed.
"Keep on running," said Hawk-Eye.
They were terribly frightened, but they did as they were told. If they
had looked up, they would have seen a terrifying sight. On the edge of
the bluff there was a strange group of people. At least we must call
them "people," though they looked more like monkeys than like human
beings. They were grinning horribly and dancing about and chattering to
each other. Their bodies were covered with dark hair. Their arms were
long and strong, their legs short. They had little eyes set near
together, and almost no forehead at all. Every one of them had
something in his hand to throw at the travellers.
Hawk-Eye kept straight on. "Run," he cried. "We can't fight; they are
too many."
On, on they ran, panting and breathless. A little way ahead there were
some large rocks on the edge of the wood. There they might find a
momentary shelter. They had almost reached the rocks, when suddenly a
woman of the wild tribe let herself down out of a tree on the edge of
the bluff and made a bold dash down the slope. Before they could stop
her, she had seized Firefly and dragged her away. She got as far as the
first oak tree on the slope and had actually snatched a limb, intending
to swing herself and Firefly into it, when Limberleg, screaming with
fury, reached the spot. Limberleg seized Firefly by one arm. The wild
woman had hold of the other.
They pulled in opposite directions and screamed, and if it had not been
for Hawk-Eye, there's no telling what might have become of poor Firefly.
She might have been pulled in two, or she might have been carried off
and adopted into the wild clan. But Hawk-Eye was there in almost no
time, and though the people on the bluff rained down sticks and stones
upon them, Hawk-Eye drove his spear into the woman's arm. With a shriek
of pain she let go of Firefly and dashed away into the forest.
"Run for your lives," cried Hawk-Eye, and they started again at top
speed for the rocks. They reached them none too soon, for the people on
the bluff, infuriated by the injury to the woman, came dashing down the
slope after them. Once in the shelter of the rocks, Hawk-Eye turned and
faced his pursuers. When they had almost reached his hiding-place he
gave a fierce yell and threw his spear. It was a very well made spear
with a bone barb on the end, and it struck the leader of the wild tribe
in the thigh. With a shriek of pain he fell to the ground. Then he
seized the spear and pulled it out of his flesh.
The wild tribe had no weapons but sticks and stones. They were
tree-dwellers. They did not even know the secret of fire. They lived
upon roots and berries and nuts, and such small game as they could catch
with their hands or in snares. Their homes were rude shelters in the
trees. When they saw what had happened to their leader, they were
terribly frightened. They turned and ran for the trees, leaving the
wounded man on the ground.
Hawk-Eye ran out from behind the rock, picked up his spear, and sent it
flying after the enemy. It struck another man. Howling with pain and
fear, he too dropped in his tracks. His companions ran faster than
ever, and when they reached the trees, instantly swung themselves up by
the branches and disappeared. Only now and then one could be seen
swinging from tree to tree, back into the deep forest, like great
monkeys. Hawk-Eye again ran after his spear. This time he pulled it
out of the wounded man's flesh himself, and left him rolling on the
ground, too much hurt to attack him or defend himself. Then Hawk-Eye
ran back to the little group hidden behind the rock.
Everything was now as quiet as if no one lived in the forest at all.
There was not a single tree-dweller in sight except the first wounded
man, and he was already crawling as fast as he could up the bluff.
In spite of everything, Hawk-Eye and Limberleg had held on to their
meat, and now they felt the need of food. They cut Limberleg's load
into four great chunks, and each took one. They ate as they walked.
They ran along past the place where the mammoths were feeding and then
turned their backs on the river and plunged into the deep forest toward
the east. The ground began to rise a little, and Hawk-Eye said, "If we
keep on climbing in the direction of the rising sun, we are bound to
reach the blue hills at last."
All that day they journeyed, and that night they spent in a tree. The
next morning found them still climbing. At last, about noon of the
second day, they reached the crest of the range and climbed out upon the
high, bald summit of the highest hill.
No one of their clan had ever been so far from the cave, and no one of
them had ever seen what Hawk-Eye and Limberleg and the Twins now saw.
There was the world spread out before them! They looked back far away
in the blue distance toward the west, and there they saw a little silver
thread. That silver thread was their river. They looked toward the
south, and far, far away they saw more water than they had ever dreamed
there was in the whole earth. They didn't know what it was. They were
not even sure that it was water. They had never heard of the sea. They
stood silent and breathless with wonder and gazed at it. At last
Hawk-Eye said in an awestruck tone, "It's the end of the world."
"Let's go to the very edge and look over it," said Limberleg. "Maybe we
can find out where the sun hides during the darkness."
You see what a brave woman she was.
"Then are these the blue hills?" asked Firetop. "They don't look blue a
bit."
"The blueness is all around us, though," cried Firefly, pointing down
into the valley. "And beyond the end of the world, it's all blue too,
with sparkles on it! And the sky is blue. The only place that isn't
blue is right around us."
"We will surely go through the blue country to get to the end of the
world then," said Firetop.
All this time Hawk-Eye had been standing on the highest point, studying
the view and choosing landmarks. He knew how to find his way through
forests as well as we know the way to the post-office. When he had the
route all planned out, he called the children and Limberleg to his side.
He pointed to the south. "Do you see far away that little neck of land
which leads out to the very end of the world?" he said. "We will keep
the sun on this side of us the first half of the day and on the other
side the other half of the day and we shall surely reach it. Then we
shall see what lies beyond."
Hawk-Eye led the way over the crest of the hill and down into the forest
below, the Twins and Limberleg close behind him. All day they pressed
on, over hills, through dense woods, and across little streams, keeping
always to the south. At last they found the narrow neck of land which
they had seen from the hill-top. They camped that night in a tree, near
the water's edge, and, at night-fall of the second day after, they
climbed the last weary mile and stood upon the great rocks at the end of
the world.
A stream of fresh water poured through a deep gorge beside them.
Toward the east and toward the west, farther than their eyes could see,
stretched the dark blue waters. Toward the north they could look clear
across the island to the distant shore of the mainland. We know now
that they stood on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, and that the
faint blue line across the water would some day be called France. But
the Twins and their father and mother thought that they stood on the
very edge of the earth and looked out into mysterious regions which lay
beyond.
As they stood gazing, the western sky flamed with red and gold and the
sun sank out of sight behind a distant point of land. High up in the
east the pale round disk of the moon hung in the deep blue of the sky.
It was more wonderful than they had dreamed.
"To-morrow, if we wake early, we shall see where the sun comes from,"
said Limberleg.
They sat on the rocks and watched the stars come out and saw the moon
sail away to the west, and then, when they were too weary to stay awake
longer, they spread their skins on the rocks and slept under the open
sky, with the boom of the surf for a lullaby.
The Cave Twins--by Lucy Fitch Perkins
CHAPTER SIX.
THE EARTHQUAKE.
One.
They slept so soundly that they did not hear low rolling sounds of
thunder or see the moon go out of sight behind a black cloud. Even
lightning did not rouse them, but when at last the rain came splashing
down over their bare skins they woke up. There was no shelter for them,
so they huddled together in a wet heap and waited for the rain to be
over and for the morning to come. It was no gentle spring shower.
The water poured down like a deluge. They were very wretched, and
Firefly began to cry.
"Now, see here," Limberleg said to her, "there's water enough already!
You needn't add your tears, or we shall all be drowned! The rain will
be over some time. It won't hurt you."
When the lightning flashed, they could see the trees waving and bending
in the wind and great breakers rolling up over the sandy beach.
But the rain wasn't the worst that was to happen. After a while there
came a strange shivering feeling in the rocks beneath them. It grew
stronger and stronger till the whole earth shook and trembled.
Hawk-Eye and Limberleg had felt earthquakes before, but never one like
this. It seemed as if the world were shaking itself to pieces. They
huddled closer together and clasped their arms around the Twins.
"Oh," shrieked Limberleg, "the water gods are angry because we tried to
find out the secret of the sun!" She and Hawk-Eye prayed to them at the
top of their lungs. "Spare us, oh, spare us," they cried.