Watch water when it is boiling, and see if you can tell what
happens.
Why would it be harder for people to learn to boil than to roast?
What kind of dishes did the Cave-men have? What would happen to
them if they were put over the fire?
What does your mother do, when she wants to find out whether the
flatiron is hot enough to iron?
When the Cave-men first learned to boil water, do you think they
would think of boiling food? What might make them think of boiling
food?
_What Happened when the Children Played with Hot Stones_
Again the Cave-men went out to hunt. Again the women went out to
gather roots and berries. Only Chew-chew and the children were left
near the cave.
Chew-chew was curing the skins which the women had brought home. Some
of them were stretched out on the ground. Others were stretched on
frames. Many of these were ready to be rolled up and put away.
While the skins were drying, Chew-chew had time for other work. She
wanted to finish her basket, and so the splints must be put to soak.
At a sign from Chew-chew, Fleetfoot went to the river for a bag of
water. While he was gone, Chew-chew began to make a place to put it.
She dug a shallow hole in the ground and lined it with a skin.
When Fleetfoot came back they patted down the skin. Then they poured
the water into the skin-lined hole, and put the splints to soak.
While Chew-chew worked at her basket, Fleetfoot played near at hand.
Often he came to his grandmother's side and talked about many things.
At length Chew-chew, holding up a skin, turned to Fleetfoot and said,
"Do you know what animal wore this skin?"
[Illustration: _A bear's tooth awl._]
"One of the reindeer we saw at the ford," quickly responded Fleetfoot.
"Where have all the reindeer gone?" was Chew-chew's next question.
"To the cave of the Big Bear of the mountains," came the prompt
answer.
While Chew-chew and Fleetfoot talked the children played near the
cave. Pigeon was playing with stones which she had gathered and tossed
into the fire. In trying to get them out again she burned her fingers,
and began to cry.
When Chew-chew saw what had happened, she told Fleetfoot to play with
Pigeon. And Fleetfoot played with Pigeon, and he showed her how to
lift hot stones without getting burned.
The children played and carried hot stones with tongs made of sticks.
They ran back and forth between rows of skins until Pigeon dropped a
hot stone into the hole.
No sooner had Pigeon dropped the stone than she screamed, "A snake! a
snake!" And she ran to her grandmother and sobbed, while she hid her
face in her chubby arm.
Chew-chew thought that a snake was crawling about. Fleetfoot helped
her look under all the skins. They looked for some time, but they
found no trace of a snake.
Then Chew-chew asked Pigeon to tell her all about it. And Pigeon said,
"A big snake hissed and made me drop the stone."
Just then Fleetfoot dropped a hot stone and something went
"s-s-s-s-s-s."
Pigeon screamed again, but a hearty laugh from Chew-chew showed there
was nothing to fear. Chew-chew knew that the hissing sound was not the
hiss of a snake. It was the sizzling of the water when it touched the
hot stone.
And so Chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the hissing
sound. She picked up hot stones and dropped them into the water. Each
time a stone was dropped, the hissing sound was heard; and the
children learned to know the sound, and they were no longer afraid.
As Chew-chew kept on dropping the hot stones, she did not notice all
that happened. She thought only of teaching the children, so that they
would not be afraid. But at last such a strange thing happened, that
even Chew-chew was afraid.
The water no longer was still. It kept moving like the angry water in
the rapids of the river. A thin mist began to rise, and a strange
voice came from the water, saying:--
"_Bubble, bubble, bubble;
Bubble, bubble, bubble._"
At the sound Chew-chew was filled with fear. She was afraid the gods
were angry. She looked about for an offering, and found a piece of
bison meat. She dropped the meat into the water, hoping to appease
the angry god.
[Illustration: "_Chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the
hissing sound._"]
The bubbling ceased, but Chew-chew was still afraid. So she called the
children together, and took them into the cave.
When the men and women came home that night, Chew-chew told them what
had happened. They went to the spot and saw the meat, which they
thought the god had left. Then they listened in silence as Chew-chew
told them the story again and again.
#THINGS TO DO#
_Choose some one for each of the parts and dramatize the story._
_Draw pictures which will show what happened._
_See if you can boil water by dropping hot stones into it._
_Show in your sand-box how the skins were stretched out, and how
the skin-lined hole was made._
X