Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: Making stone tools]
THE CAVE BOY
OF THE AGE OF STONE
BY
MARGARET A. McINTYRE
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Dedicated to My Mother
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. STRONGARM'S FAMILY
II. THE NEEDLE, THE CLUB, AND THE BOW
III. THE TAMING OF THE DOG
IV. HOW STRONGARM HUNTED A BEAR AND A LION
V. THE OLD AX MAKER VISITS HIS DAUGHTER
VI. THE COMING OF FIRE
VII. THE CAVE TIGER
VIII. THE MAKING OF STONE WEAPONS
IX. AT THE GRAVEL PIT
X. A SUMMER CAMP
XI. THORN MEETS THE CHILDREN OF THE SHELL MOUNDS
XII. AT THE HOME OF THE SHELL MOUND PEOPLE
XIII. THORN LEARNS TO SWIM
XIV. THE FEAST OF MAMMOTH'S MEAT
XV. THE RED MEN OF OUR OWN COUNTRY IN THE STONE AGE
XVI. HOW STONE WEAPONS OF THE CAVE MEN WERE FIRST FOUND
XVII. HOW THE EARTH LOOKED WHEN THE SHELL MEN AND THE CAVE MEN LIVED
XVIIII. HOW EARLY MEN BELIEVED THAT ALL THINGS THAT MOVE ARE ALIVE
XIX. THE PEOPLE OF OUR TIME WHO WERE MOST LIKE THE CAVE MEN
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Making stone tools . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs
Strongarm
A big black bear came along
Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the bear
Ram horns
Sewing together skins of wild oxen
A little bone
Bone needle
Broken hunting club
The bees flew off humming angrily
The edge of the pond
And, for fun, set it against the string
Broken hunting club (2nd version)
Cattle horns
So they lay down on the ground and began to call
A nest full of young eagles
She scraped off all the meat and fat
Tiger's tooth and bear's claw
Lion
Lion's tooth
Stone tools
Stone axe
Woven basket
Little wild pigs were eating the acorns
The sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves
The boys listened in wonder
Shelter of branches
Acorns
Tiger
Tiger's tooth
He struck with his hammer stone
He held the pebble in his left hand and struck it a sharp blow
Deer antlers
Forest scene
Spear
The women and children went to pick berries
The women and children ate and ate the sweet fruit
Snowy owl in tree
Women with baskets
Skin bag with pull string
Herd of reindeer
They dived into the river and swam away, pulling the raft
Flock of white swans
The sea
Clam and oyster shells
Dug-out boat
They began to cook the fish
The people took the fish in their hands
Cutting down a tree
A flounder
Seaweed
Thorn learns to swim
Clay bowls
Mammoth trapped in swamp
Wolves
Throwing a spear
A North American Indian
A stone arrow head
A stone ax
Picture of reindeer, scratched on slate; found in a cave in France
Eskimo by their winter huts; drawn by an Eskimo
A bone awl; found in a cave in England
Drawing of a mammoth, on a piece of mammoth tusk;
found in a cave in France
A flint knife; found in Australia
THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE
CHAPTER I
STRONGARM'S FAMILY
It was spring, thousands of years ago. Little boys snatched the April
violets, and with them painted purple stripes upon their arms and
faces. Then they played that enemies came.
"Be afraid!" shouted one, frowning; and he stamped his foot and shook
his fist at the play enemies.
"I am fine!" called the other; and he held his head high, and took big
steps, and looked this way and that.
The little brothers were named Thorn and Pineknot. Their baby sister
had no name. The children looked rough and wild and strong and glad.
The sun had made them brown, the wind had tangled their hair. Their
clothes were only bits of fox skin. Their home was the safe rock cave
in the side of the hill.
Near the children a little goat was eating the sweet new grass. She
was tied with a string made of skin. Thorn stroked her and, laughing,
said,
"Let us put the baby on the goat's back and see her run."
"Oh, that would be fun!" cried Pineknot, and he ran and untied the goat.
Laughing, Thorn put the baby on the goat's back. The little fingers
clung to the goat's hair.
Then Thorn struck the goat and shouted, "Run!"
The goat ran; the baby laughed; Pineknot danced and clapped his hands.
All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs. The baby fell off,
and rolled over and over on the ground. She cried out, though she was
not hurt. And the boys laughed and shouted till the woods rang.
[Illustration: All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs]
After a while Pineknot thought of the goat; he had not tied her.
"Where is the little goat? Oh, there she is up among the rocks. She
did not run away, Thorn."
"No," said Thorn, "she will not run away now, for we pet her and give
her things to eat. Mother feeds her, too."
"Oh, but she was a wild one when father brought her home," said
Pineknot. "Father killed the mother goat and caught the young one
alive. He said that he would keep her at the cave. Then some day when
he had killed nothing on the hunt, and we were hungry, he would kill
the goat."
"We will ask father not to kill her, but let us keep her for a pet,"
said Thorn.
As the boys were talking, from far away through the forest came a big,
merry song:
"The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!
The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!"
"It is father coming from the hunt," said Thorn, jumping to his feet.
"He is bringing wild horse meat. Good, good!" cried Pineknot.
Thorn threw the baby on his back, and together the boys ran into the
forest to meet their father.
The forest--oh, it was beautiful! The trunks of the old trees were big
and rough and mossy. And there were tall ferns and gray rocks and
little brooks, and there was a sweet smell of rotting leaves.
"The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!"
still sang the young hunter, shaking his red hair gaily. He was not
tall, but his legs were big, for he ran after the wild horse and deer
and ox. And his arms were big, because he threw a great spear and a
stone ax. His name was Strongarm.
[Illustration: Strongarm]
The boys came running up to their father. They pointed to the meat on
his shoulder, and laughed and shouted and clapped their hands.
"We shall not go hungry to-day!
We shall not go hungry to-day!"
they sang as they danced along.
"Ho, ho, ho!" sang Strongarm to his wife, as he went into the cave. He
threw the horse meat upon the floor with a loud laugh, and lay down on
a bear skin to rest.
The cave was a big room with a high roof. The floor was of dirt and
very hard. The walls were limestone rock in beautiful rough layers,
one upon another. From the roof the limestone hung in long pointed
shapes, like icicles.
A fire burned brightly on the floor, while the smoke rose slowly and
went out at a hole in the roof. The walls and the roof were blackened
by smoke.
Strongarm's young wife was named Burr. She was glad when she saw the
meat. She took her stone knife quickly and cut up the meat, and threw
the pieces on the hot coals. While the fire blazed and snapped and
cooked the meat, the boys looked on with hungry eyes.
When the meat was done, Burr pulled it from the fire with a long stick.
The boys and Strongarm snatched it up and tore it to pieces with their
white teeth.
"Um-m! how good and tender and juicy!" said the boys, grinning, and
smacking their lips.
When the meat was all gone, the bones were broken and the sweet marrow
scraped out and eaten; for that was good, too.
While the family was still eating, a big black bear came along. He
smelled the meat, and put his great rough head in at the door and
sniffed.
[Illustration: A big black bear came along]
"Bear!" shouted Strongarm, jumping to his feet.
Burr and the boys cried out and quickly ran away to hide. Strongarm
snatched a blazing log and struck the bear. He was burned and hurt,
and he grew angry. He stood up on his hind legs and growled and showed
his sharp teeth.
Strongarm snatched his ax and made for the bear, but he had gone. His
growls sounded farther and farther away. Still Strongarm stood with
his ax ready, his heart thumping and his eyes big. When he saw that
the bear was not coming back, he dropped his ax with a gruff laugh.
Then Burr and the boys came creeping out of their holes. And they all
laughed and talked at once, telling how scared they had been.
The growls of the bear still sounded through the woods, so the boys ran
to the door to see him.
"There he goes!" cried Pineknot with wide eyes, pointing.
"How big he is!" cried Thorn; "I shall make his picture."
Thorn ran back into the cave and quickly threw a pineknot on the fire.
It blazed up and made all the cave light. He broke a piece of
limestone from the wall and picked up a sharp stone from the floor.
Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the bear. After a
while he held up the piece of limestone with the picture scratched on
it.
[Illustration: Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the
bear]
"O mother," said Pineknot, laughing hard, "see Thorn's picture of the
bear. It shows his big body and his long head and his little ears."
"That is the very bear that made us run," said Burr, laughing.
All this time Strongarm had been making a picture of wild horses. He
now held up the picture, scratched on a piece of deer antler.
"See, this horse has his ears up," he said. "He heard me coming. Here
I am with my spear."
Burr and the boys crowded round and said, "Oh!"
While Strongarm and the boys were making pictures, the baby had been
tumbling about on the floor. She crept around or pulled herself to her
feet by holding to the rough places in the wall. After a while she
grew sleepy; then her mother took her in her arms and sang this song:
"Little child!
Little sweet one!
Little girl!
Though a baby,
Soon a-hunting after berries
Will be going.
Little girl!
Little sweet one!
Little child!"
The baby went to sleep, and Burr laid her on a bear skin on the floor.
Soon afterwards Pineknot fell asleep on another skin, and in a little
while Thorn lay beside him. Then Burr put ashes over the coals, while
Strongarm threw burning logs before the door. Soon all was quiet in
the cave. The cave folks had gone to sleep.
[Illustration: Ram horns]