How do you think the children played in the winter? What do you
play in the winter?
How do you think the Cave-men would hunt when there was only a
light fall of snow?
How would they hunt when the snow was deep?
How would they hunt when there was a hard crust on the snow?
_How the Children Played in Winter_
When the children saw their fathers and mothers go out of doors, they,
too, wanted to go. But they had no warm clothing, so their mothers
tried to keep them in doors.
Sometimes Fleetfoot and Flaker teased to go out and play in the snow.
And when the days were warm enough, Antler let them go out and play.
But on very cold days they had to stay in the cave.
The children had good times in the cave. They played many animal
games. They played they were grown men and women, and they made
believe do all sorts of work. They peeked out of the cave many times
each day. They heard their fathers and mothers talk. And they listened
to Greybeard's stories.
And so the children always knew what the men and women were doing.
After a heavy fall of snow, they knew they would trap the animals in
the drifts. When a hard crust formed, they knew they would dig
pitfalls.
Antler often wished that the children might play out doors every day.
Greybeard wanted the boys to learn to make pitfalls and traps. But
neither Antler nor Greybeard had thought of making clothing for little
children.
The day Antler thought of making clothes for the boys, was the day
they ran away to the pitfall. It was soon after Chipper came to the
cave and said that two reindeer were in the pit.
When the boys heard what Chipper said, they were playing they were
Bighorn and Chipper. They had tied the skins of wolves' heads over
their heads, and they let the rest of the skins hang down as if they
were capes.
When the news came about the reindeer, everybody was excited.
Everybody hurried to the pitfall so as to see the reindeer. Nobody
noticed the boys steal out of the cave. Nobody noticed them run to the
pitfall.
But soon after she started, Antler saw the tracks of their bare feet.
She guessed at once where the boys had gone. And it was then that she
thought of making them clothing.
While the children slept that night, Antler talked with the women. And
when morning came, the women took skins and made the children warm
clothes and moccasins.
When the children put on their wolf-skin suits, they looked like a
pack of wolves. Sometimes they played they were wolves. Then they
chased make-believe wild horses.
Sometimes when the children were playing in the snow, they found the
antlers of a full-grown stag. The children began to look for the
antlers of the full-grown stags in early winter. But they knew that
the other reindeer kept their antlers until early spring.
An old stag's antlers were large and strong, and the children liked to
find them. They would pick them up and hold them in their hands and
would then make believe they were Cave-men trapping reindeer in the
snow.
One day Greybeard showed Fleetfoot and Flaker how to trap the reindeer
in the snow. He showed them how to dig a pitfall in the drifts. The
boys found a large drift near the trail and they cut out a large block
of snow. They hollowed a deep pit under the crust which they took
pains not to break. Then they fitted the block of snow in its place,
thus covering the pit.
To make sure that the reindeer would come to the pitfall they
scattered moss over the thin crust. Then Greybeard taught them to say,
"_Come down to the river, reindeer;_
_Come down to the river to drink._
_Come eat the moss I have spread for you,_
_Come and fall into my trap._"
All the Cave-men believed that these words would charm the reindeer to
the spot. They always muttered such lines as charms when they went out
to hunt. And so Greybeard taught the boys the lines, for he wanted
them to know all the Cave-men's charms.
#THINGS TO DO#
_Name the animals which you know by their tracks. Draw a picture of
the tracks you know best._
_Tell a story about hunting an animal by tracking it._
_Next time there is a heavy fall of snow, play hunting animals by
driving them into the drifts._
_See if you can show in your sand-box how the pitfall was made._
_See if you can think of a way of having real drifts in your
sand-box._
_Draw a picture of the children playing with the antlers of the
reindeer._
_Draw a picture of the reindeer in the pitfall._