SUNRISE AND DAWN
When the children were old enough, She Wolf took them with her on little
hunts, and taught them the signs of the forest, and the ways of the
beasts and as much as she knew of the ways of men.
Sunrise was an apt scholar, for he had the strength and hunting instincts
of his mother, and all the cleverness, with none of the cowardice, which
had distinguished his father. But Dawn did not take very kindly to the
life into which she had been born.
As much as people of those times could be, she was a dreamer. She would
pull out from a clear track to chase a butterfly, and she preferred wild
raspberries to moose-meat, but then she was only a little child, and not
very strong. This was a curious fact, considering her parentage.
She tired easily, and she had a habit of walking in the night and
crooning to herself. Altogether she was a trying pupil and She Wolf
rather despised her. But it was different with Sunrise.
As She Wolf had predicted, he followed Dawn, and was unhappy away from
her. She Wolf gave up the chase, and Sunrise armed with his father’s bow
and arrows did the hunting for the cave.
A time came when the nice collection of flints which No Man had left
behind him was almost entirely dispersed. Many of the flints had been
broken, many lost and it behooved Sunrise to replenish the supply. So
without saying anything to She Wolf he took his bow, some arrows with
broken heads, and one good arrow for a model, and trotted off to old No
Foot’s workshop on the flinty hillside.
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“Please,” said Sunrise, “I am nearly out of flints, and I must have new
ones or else She Wolf and Dawn will starve for want of meat.”
“Who are you to talk so big of hunting?” said No Foot, looking up.
“I am Sunrise, the son of No Man and She Wolf,” said Sunrise, “and I am
hard put to it for flints.”
“And what do you offer me in exchange for my trouble and my flints.”
“For so many,” said Sunrise and he opened his right hand twice “I will
give you as much moose-meat as I can bring hither in two trips.”
“I do not lack for meat,” said No Foot, “offer me something else.”
“But I do not know of anything else to offer,” said Sunrise with a catch
in his voice.
“What is that in your hand,” said No Foot and he indicated the bow.
“I do not know its name,” said Sunrise, “but with it I can strike things
that are far off.”
No Foot took the bow in his hands but could make nothing of it.
“It is some childishness,” he said.
In the hillside at the base of a flinty boulder a chipmunk had his hole
and was out sunning himself.
“If,” said Sunrise, “standing here I show you how to kill that chipmunk
will you give me the flints.”
“If you strike him from here,” said No Foot, “you shall have them.”
Sunrise took his one good arrow and fitted it to the string. Then he drew
it to the head, aimed a moment and let fly.
The flint point of the arrow struck a shower of sparks out of the flint
boulder just above the chipmunk’s head and the shaft was shattered into
pieces. The chipmunk dove into his hole, unharmed.
Sunrise was ready to cry with vexation, but when he turned to No Foot, he
saw that the old man’s face was wrapped with wonder.
“I am old,” said No Foot presently and slowly. “I have struck blows and I
have seen blows struck, but this blow was the most mighty.”
“It was badly aimed,” said Sunrise. “I am sorry, and it was my last good
flint.”
“Flints!” said No Foot. “Flints—you shall have flints. But strike me
another blow—mighty one.”
Again Sunrise smote the boulder mightily so that sparks flew, and the
shaft was shivered.
“He shivers the shafts,” said No Foot.
“My father, No Man, made this thing,” said Sunrise, “and now it is mine.”
“I, too, will make one and again others,” said No Foot, “and after this
day, men will no longer hunt with spear and club. But to him who first
makes these things great wealth will accrue, and because the thing is
young and was your father’s before you, you shall have half whatever men
bring to me in exchange. Of what wood is it made?”
And so old No Foot got hold of the bow. But he improved upon it, both in
workmanship and design, and he waxed very rich, but he gave a fair half
to Sunrise and many beautiful flints besides.
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