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[Illustration: (uncaptioned)]
CHILDREN OF THE CLIFF
BY
BELLE WILEY
AND
GRACE WILLARD EDICK
[Illustration: (uncaptioned)]
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1905, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America.
TO
THE CHILDREN
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The cliff country 1
II. Lost 13
III. The tower 18
IV. A cliff house 28
V. The cliff home 35
VI. The dress of the cliff people 44
VII. The race 50
VIII. The feast 59
IX. The journey 66
X. Home again 72
CHAPTER I
THE CLIFF COUNTRY
Little Teni and Mavo lived in a dry sandy country far away from here.
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They lived with their father and mother high up on a rocky cliff.
All about them were rocks and sand.
They could not play in the shade of the trees, because in that dry land
there were very few trees.
But the little boy and girl had great fun climbing up and down the rocks
and running in the sunshine.
One day when Mavo and Teni were playing at the foot of the cliff, they
saw some baby rabbits not far away.
They were brown rabbits, just the kind that Teni loved to play with.
"Oh, Mavo! Let us catch them," he said, and the two ran off together.
As the children came near, the little rabbits scampered away as fast as
they could.
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The mother rabbit was waiting for her children in a hole near by and
they ran straight for home.
Mavo laughed as the little creatures ran over the sand toward the hollow
cliff.
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"Come, Mavo," said Teni. "We can catch them if we hurry."
They did not see the rabbits go into the hole, and ran on and on.
"I see them, Teni," said Mavo, pointing to a brown spot in the distance.
But when they came to the brown spot they saw only a stone.
They looked all about them, but could find no trace of the rabbits. Mavo
was so disappointed not to find them!
"Where are the rabbits?" said Teni.
"We have lost them."
"They may be hiding there," he said, looking toward a clump of cedar
trees, at the foot of the cliff.
The two children ran among the trees, but could find no rabbits.
Mavo was tired and thirsty, so Teni said, "Sit down, Mavo; I will get
you a drink of water. See, the rocks are wet. There must be a spring in
the cliff."
Mavo sat on a rock, while her brother climbed up the cliff to the
spring.
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As he stooped down to take a drink he wondered what he could use to
carry some water to Mavo.
He looked around for a gourd but could find none.
The only thing he could use was the little skin bag that hung around his
neck.
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He never opened this bag, for he knew that if he lost the bit of bear's
fur from inside, no one would know what his real name was.
The children of the cliff-dwellers took their names from their mothers.
These names were very queer, because they were the names of animals or
the sun or the moon.
The little piece of fur showed that Mavo and Teni belonged to the bear
family.
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Teni knew that Mavo was very thirsty, so he took the bag from his neck
and opened it.
He held the fur tight in his hand, for he had no pocket in his loose
skin tunic.
Mavo drank the clear water, and Teni sat down beside her and put the fur
carefully back in the bag.
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Being very warm, he threw off his skin tunic for a few minutes and
rolled about in the sand.
The brother and sister meant to rest only a moment, but as the shadows
grew longer and longer the little heads drooped, and soon they were fast
asleep in the warm sand.
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The sun went down.
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The little stars came out.
Their mother had told them that these were baby suns, and that the pale
moon was the mother.
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As the children slept, an owl cried over their heads, and the black
beetles ran over their little brown feet.
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