428 – The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone
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This episode of Sleepy is proudly sponsored by Green Chef, the number one meal kit for clean eating. It's summer, and I absolutely love summer. The longer days, the warm light, the way everything just seems to kind of slow down, but there's still a lot going on. It makes me want to eat fresh, simple meals that really help me feel good. Well, Green Chef makes that easy.

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This episode of Sleepy is proudly sponsored by Shopify. When I first started this show and started podcasting in general, I learned a lot of stuff the hard way. Writing, editing, recording, producing, marketing, social media. It was a lot to start doing this. And while I love knowing how to do all those things now, I definitely would have loved to know about tools that would have made my life simpler like I do today. Tools that would have made my life simpler like I do today.

Tools that make my business and my life just run smoother. Shopify is definitely one of those tools. It is the business behind the business. It's the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, from household names like Mattel to businesses just getting started. There's hundreds of ready-to-use templates to build a beautiful online store that matches your brand.

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Turn your big business idea into reality with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash otis. Go to shopify.com slash o-t-i-s, shopify.com slash otis. I'll put a link for this in the show notes. Thanks. Hey, my name's Otis Gray, and you're listening to Sleepy, a podcast where I read old books to help you get to sleep.

Tonight's story I have for you is one from the Stone Age, which I really, really loved reading. I think you're going to like it a lot. And before I get to the bedtime reading, I just want to thank profoundly all of our new patrons on patreon.com, which is a website you can go and pledge a couple bucks for an ad-free version of Sleepy. So, this week's wonderful new patrons. Gail Underinner, Dionne Borchurn, Beth, Valerie Van Valkenburg, Mel,

Norman Carter, Sherry, Tina Ellis, Jackie Ray, Kim Tran, Aga, Kitty Edward, and Dr. Amanda Evans. Thank you all so, so much for being a part of making this show. It means a lot to me. So thank you. And if you're hearing this and you have no idea what I'm talking about,

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And as always, the music you're hearing is by my good friend James Lepkowski, and the cover art for Sleepy is by Gracie Kena. Tonight's story is by an author I've never read before named Margaret A. McIntyre. And, um, this is a really wonderful book. It's so beautifully and simply written, and it feels a little bit different than the stories we've been reading on the show for a while now, but it is a, um, it's kind of the story of a family. A, uh,

family of cave people and it's just really delightful very um visual and it's got great dialogue a real delight to read so i really hope that you can fall deep deep asleep to it so without further ado tonight's story the cave boy of the age of stone by margaret a mcintyre and now is the time for you to fluff up your pillow just how you like it feel yourself melt into your bed get real comfortable

Close your eyes and let me read to you. Chapter 1. Strong Arms 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 the enemy's game. 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 Pine Knot. 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, laughing, and said,

Let us put the baby on the goat's back and see her run. Oh, that would be fun, cried Pine Nut. And he ran and he 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. Pine Nut 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 her, and the boys laughed and shouted till the woods rang. After a while, Pine Nut 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 her father brought her home," said Pine Nut. "Father killed the mother goat and caught the young one alive,

He said that he would keep her at the cave. Then someday, 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. And 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 Pinot. Dorne threw the baby on his back, and together the boys ran to 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 axe. His name was 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 today. We shall not go hungry today. 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 bare 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 of 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.

Strong Arms' 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 Strong Arms snatched it up and tore it to pieces with their white teeth. Mmm, 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 eating, a big black bear came along. He smelled the meat and put his great rough head in at the door and sniffed. "Bear!" shouted Strongarm, jumping to his feet. Bear and the boys cried out and quickly ran away to hide. Strongarm snatched a blazing log and struck the bear. He was burned in her and he grew angry.

He stood up on his hind legs and growled, and showed his sharp teeth. Strongarm snatched his axe and made for the bear, but he was gone. His growl sounded farther and farther away. Strongarm stood with his axe ready, his heart thumping, and his eyes big. When he saw that the bear was not coming back, he dropped his axe with a gruff laugh. Then Bear 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 Pina with wide eyes, pointing. "How big he is!" cried Thorn. "I shall make his picture." Thorn ran back into the cave and quickly drew Pina 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 a picture scratched on it. Oh, mother, said Pinehaw, laughing hard. Seathorn'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 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 out about on the floor. She crept around or pulled herself to her feet by holding 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.

We'll be going, little girl. Little sweet one. Little child. The baby went to sleep, and Burr laid her on a bare skin on the floor. Soon afterwards, Pine Knot 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. Chapter 2 The Needle, the Club, and the Bow

Nearly every day, Strongarm went out to hunt. But he did not always bring back meat to the cave, for he could not always kill an animal. But sometimes he brought home the meat of deer or bison, and then again it was that of a mammoth or ox. Burr always took the meat when Strongarm brought it home, and sometimes she cut tendons from it. A tendon is a strong white core that fastens a muscle to a bone. There are long tendons in the backs of big animals,

Burr cut these out, sometimes, and hung them in the sun to dry. When they were dry, she broke the thin outside skin and tore the tendon apart with her fingers. They came to pieces in many little threads. Burr took some of the little threads and twisted them together and made a good strong thread for sewing. One day, she sat before the door of her cave, sewing together skins of wild oxen. What is the big skin for, mother? asked Pina, who ran up.

to lay on sticks above the door, said Burr. Then, even when it rains, we can sit outside. Oh, that will be fine, said the boy. Burr went on with her sewing. She made holes along the edge of the skins with a sharp stone. Then she threaded her needle. She put it through a hole in each of the skins and pulled it tight. She worked on this way and sewed the skins together. Where did you get the needle, mother? Pina asked next. Looked at it closely. I made it, said Burr.

When your father brings birds or deer from the hunt, I sometimes take a little bone from the leg of the deer or the wing of a bird. This I put in the cave to dry. When it is dry, I rub it smooth with sandstone. Then I must have a hole in one end to carry the thread. I take a sharp stone and turn it round and round on the little bone, pressing down. It is not hard work. In that way, I make a smooth hole in my needle. But when my mother sewed, burr went on.

she used a little bone to push the thread through the skins one day she found a little bone with a hole in it and took it home she put her thread through the hole wondering how it would do and began to sew soon there was a crowd of women around her pointing and saying oh while the little bone carried the thread it must be fun to sew with a needle said pine nut thorn was nearby making bone whistles and marrow scrapers and soon strong arm came up dragging a little tree

He drew down his old hunting club and said, It is broken. I will make a new one. With his stone axe he hacked the top of the roots of the tree. Then he stripped the bark from the small end and rubbed it with sandstone. It must be smooth or it will hurt my hand, he said to the boys who stood watching him. In the old days, he said, rubbing away, the cavemen had nothing to fight with but a club. Before they had even that, he went on, grinning. They fought with nails and teeth.

or with a stick or stone snatched from the ground. Then, laughing loud, he added, No wonder that in the old days people lived in trees and ran if they saw a wildcat. I should be sorry if you had nothing to hunt with but a club, father, said Pine Nut, making a long face. We should go hungry oftener than we do now. After they had gone into the cave, the boys began to play with the baby. In fun, they pushed her into the room. Behind the one they lived in, she cried out,

because she was scared at the darkness. How loud her voice sounds in there, said Thorn. What is the rest of the cave like, father? asked Pine Knot. Is it very big? Yes. It goes far back into the hill, said Strongarm. I have never been to the end of it myself. Show it to us, father, said Thorn. Eddie ran to get a burning knot. Strongarm took the torch and led the way into the next room. He held the torch up high. The light looked small and dim in the darkness of the big room.

They went on and came to the room after room and to long halls. Some places were narrow and low, so that they had to crawl on hands and knees to get through, and all the walls and floors were wet and slippery. Everywhere in the cave, the limestone showed beautiful rough layers. In all the rooms, long pointed rocks hung from the roof or stood up from the floor. Water dripped from each pointed rock above and fell on the pointed rock just beneath. In many places, two pointed rocks touched each other,

formed a great, rough, beautiful pillar. In some of the rooms, the walls and pillars were lovely and white, glistening in the torchlight. The boys looked at all these things in wonder. When at last they had come back to their own room, Pine Nut asked, Father, what is the water that we heard trickling in the cave? It is a stream. It used to come down through that hole, said Strongarm, pointing to the smoke hole. But afterwards, it went down another way. He sat thinking for a while. Then he said,

When I fought with the other young hunters and carried off your mother, I wanted a cave to bring her to. I came to look at this one. Bears were living here then. But one evening, while they were all away, I came in and made a fire at the door. Strongarm laughed loud and hard, and the rest laughed to hear him. Since then, the cave has been mine, he went on. While you should have seen the floor, it was covered with old bones that the bears had brought in to gnaw.

I threw them all out and broke off the rocks that stood up from the floor. That gave more room. Then I brought your mother here. It has made us a good safe home, said Burr, nodding her head. After a while, Thorn jumped up and said, I want some honey. He took a burning stick from the fire and ran out. He walked through the forest and looked and listened. At last he saw bees go into a hole in a hollow tree. Here is my bee tree, he cried, waving his torch. Bees were in a crowd about the hole.

crawling over each other and going in and coming out. Thorn could hear them humming from where he stood. He swung his torch from his arm, then hand over hand up the tree he went. Then he came to the bee's nest. He threw his leg over a branch. He swung the smoking stick back and forth. The bees flew off, humming angrily. Thorn quickly broke off the yellow honeycombs and put them into his bag. Then down the tree he slid, followed by the angry bees.

"Oh, oh, oh," he cried as he ran like a deer. Then he went into the cave with the wild honey. The baby held out her little hands. He gave her some and said, "You are sweet. You are honey." So the baby came to be called Honey. At sundown, the boys went out into the woods and set the traps. The beautiful mother deer and her fawn were drinking at a brook. Crickets sang under old bark, the frogs on the edge of the pond. The birds were singing their low, sweet evening songs.

The little hunters went straight on, from trap to trap, but they found no fox or wolf or wildcat in any of them. They were sorry. One trap was sprung. Something has been here, and the meat is gone, said Pinot. We must set the trap again. Thorn quickly bent down a little hickory and tied a string to the top. Then he raised one end of a big rock and put a loop of the string around it. Pinot was busy setting a trigger under the rock. All this time Thorn stood by, playing with the string.

pulling it and letting it go, pulling and letting go. Listen, he said, it sings like the wind. Pine Knot had a stick in his hand, and for fun, set it against the string. When Thorn let the string go, the stick was shot out of Pine Knot's hand and against his bare body. He yelled, and Thorn opened his eyes in wonder. Pine Knot rubbed the place, but picked up the stick, stood aside, and said it as before. Then he said, do that again.

Thorn did it again, and the stick flew among the trees. Over and over they tried it, and every time the flying string threw the stick. Now, said Thorn, I shall bend a little branch, as that tree was bent, and I shall tie a string to the ends. He did so, and all the way home he kept shooting with his little bow and wondering about it. Chapter 3 The Taming of the Dog Early one morning Strongarm went out to hunt. Cattle with wild eyes were eating grass on the edge of the wood.

Strong-arm dropped to his knees and slowly, carefully, crawled through the bushes toward them. Just a little nearer, and I will throw my spear, he thought. A dry branch snapped beneath them. The wild cattle threw up their heads, and with a hurry of feet, were soon lost to sight. Frowning, the hunter got up from his knees and walked on. He saw a herd of mammoths, but he could not kill one of the big hairy elephants alone. So he turned away. He hunted all day long. He saw plenty of wild animals.

but he could not get near enough to kill one. He saw wild ducks and grouse, but he had not brought his sling. Must I go hungry today? He growled, frowning. From far off came the yelping of dogs. The pack is hunting, he shouted with a roaring laugh. I will follow the wild dogs and take some of the meat they leave. Led by the sounds, he found the dogs running down a bison. They followed it until it was too tired to fight and then pulled it down and killed it.

They ate all the meat they wanted and went away. Then Strong Arm cut meat from the bison. On his way home, he saw a nest of wild puppies in a hollow tree. "Um," he grunted, "the little wild goat that the children play with is quiet and tame. If a wild puppy grew up with them, would it be tame? Would it help me to hunt?" He picked up a puppy. When he got home, he dropped a little ball of soft black wool between the two boys lying on a bearskin.

Then there were merry eyes, laughs, and soft calls. Here, little pet. Oh, the little sharp teeth. At last, a tired little ball fell asleep in brown arms. The puppy grew fast and was full of play. He followed the boys everywhere, and they called him Wow-Wow. One day they were playing by the high rock when the puppy saw something in the woods and ran after it. Pine Knot called to him, Come here, Wow-Wow. And the call came back from the rock, Wow-Wow.

"Oh, here my talking shadow, brother," said Pina. "Yes," said Thorn, laughing. "Let us talk a while with our talking shadows." So they lay down on the ground and began to call. "Ho there," called Thorn. "Ho there," came back from the rock. "Come here, talking shadow." Shadow was the answer. "We want to see you," called the boys. "See you," said the Echo. "Ho ho ho," laughed the boys. "Ho ho," laughed the talking shadow. That evening, Pina came running to the cave, calling.

"'Oh, Thorn, I was coming along the high rock, and I heard little cries. I crawled through the bushes and looked over and saw a nest full of young eagles. They were skinny and had no feathers on their bodies. The nest was made of sticks, and oh, it was big, and there was a lot of feathers in it.' Pinot stopped for breath. "'Go on, go on,' said Thorn. "'Tell more.' As I looked, a shadow bird went over the rock,' said Pinot, and then down dropped the mother eagle with a snake in her claws.'

Oh, cried Thorin, I wish I had seen it. The young eagles held their mouths open, pine nut went on, and their mother fed them with the snake, a little bit at a time. When the snake was all gone, the mother eagle waved her big wings and flew away. Then the young one's heads fell down. They were asleep. A day or two after that, Thorin came into the cave with an eagle's feather in his hand, and there were long red cuts and scratches on his body. His father looked at him with a scowl,

Men bring meat from the hunt, not feathers, he said roughly. The boy looked pitiful. His mother felt sorry for him. She said to herself, He has been to see the young eagles. The mother eagle saw him. He fought her alone with his little stone axe. He will be a great hunter. She looked at him proudly and put cold water on the little torn body. Growled strong arm, scowling. Would you make a baby of the boy? A fight is good for him. He will learn to make his own way. Chapter 4

how Strongarm hunted a bear and a lion. In those days, Strongarm was busily digging a big hole away out in the forest. He cut the dirt up with his stone axe and threw it out with a clamshell. He had worked now for days, and at last the hole was large enough. He laid branches over it, and over the branches he hung the leg of a wild goat. That night the wild things of the woods came out to hunt for food. A cave bear came by and smelled the meat.

He went to get it and fell through the branches into the hole beneath. The next day, when Strongarm went to the hole, he found the great cave bear in it. He killed the bear and carried the meat home to eat and the skin to sleep on. Burr took the bear skin from him and laid it out on the ground. She drove sticks down through the edges, all the while pulling the skin tight. Then with her stone scraper, she scraped off all the meat and fat. She left the skin stretched out on the ground and thought, it will dry here.

In another day I will scrape it again. Then it will be good and soft to sleep on. She looked up as a man came running toward the cave. Oh ho, Hickory, crawled Strongarm. What is it? A lion hunt, shouted Hickory, and shook his spear. Strongarm's bold face lighted up. Tell about it, he said. A lion has come among the caves by the river. He kills the people and carries off the children. The women dare not go to the river for water. The men are afraid to go alone to hunt.

So, they want help to kill the lion. They want all the strong men and the good hunters they sent for you. Strongarm quickly took his club and spear and went off with old Hickory. The men went over two hills and across a stream and came to Hickory's cave. There other men joined them. All the men had clubs and spears and stone axes and they went together toward the river caves. They found the lion and killed it. Strongarm came home after some days bringing lion's meat

Berg cooked it, and Strongarm said to the boys, "'Eat, it will make you brave.' After a while, Strongarm sat down and made a hole in a lion's tooth. Then he took off his necklace. It was made of shells and bear's claws, and a tiger's tooth, and a bit of amber. He put the lion's tooth on his necklace, and held it up and looked at it, and said, "'Men will see that and say, there's a brave man, there's a good hunter. He has helped to kill a lion.'"

The boys stood by, watching. Thorin pointed to the tiger's tooth. How long and sharp it is. I never saw a tiger. You never want to see one, unless you are where he cannot see you, roared Strongarm. Tell us about the lion hunt, father, begged Pine Knot. We watched the lion for days, said Strongarm. We found that he slept nearly all day in the thick reeds by the river. At sundown, he went out to hunt. He hunted all night. We heard him roar at times. In the early light,

He went back to his bed of reeds by the river and went to sleep. We rolled a big stone from a high rock and killed him while he slept. Then we went down to where he lay. We saw that he was an old lion and could not hunt animals enough to eat, and that is why he had begun to kill people. Chapter 5 An old axe maker visits his daughter. As they were talking, a long call came from far away. They listened. The call came again, and Strongarm put his hands to his mouth and answered.

It is old Flint, the axe-maker, he said to his wife. Grandfather, cried the boys, and they ran to meet him. Soon they came back with an old man. His hair was rough and gray, but his eyes were bright under his bushy eyebrows. He wore an old brown bear skin. Oh, man, crawled strong arm. Come on, sit and rest, father, Burr said. The old man sat down on the root of a tree. Burr brought him bison meat and wild honey and a horn of water. Yee, you are tired and hungry.

The old man ate all he wanted, and then he began to talk. He told about his wife, and the work at the stone yard, and the gravel bed, and one of the men who had come from far away to buy his axes. The boys stood by and listened. After some time, Burr looked at the bag on the old man's shoulder. "'Have you a new axe in there for me?' she asked with a little laugh. Smiles came about the old man's mouth, and he slowly pulled four beautiful chipped axes from his bag. One axe was big and heavy,

That was for Strongarm. He handed it to him. Another axe was small and light. That was Burr's. She put out her hand for it. There were two little axes. These the boys snatched with shouts of joy. The axes were wide at the sharp end and narrow at the end, and you could see where every chip had come off. Strongarm turned his axe over and looked at it. He rubbed his fingers along the rough, sharp edge. That is a good axe, he said, and he held it up and looked it all over again.

"Grandfather," said Thorn, pressing close to the old man's side, "when I am a man, I shall be an ax maker like you." "Begin now," said his grandfather, with a gruff laugh. "It takes a long time to learn to make a good ax." "Can anybody learn?" asked Pinah. "No," said Flynn. "Some men can chip stone, and others cannot. That is why some men make axes, and other men use them." "Well, I will try," said Thorn. "When you go back to the stone yard, I will go with you."

Strong Arm turned round where he sat and pulled up a little hickory tree. "'We will put handles on these axes,' he said. He hacked off a piece of the little tree and split it halfway down and hacked off one split piece. The other split piece he bent around his axe. Then he took wet string made of skin. This he put around and around the axe handle and pulled it tight. The boys stood by watching. "'The wet string will shrink and drop, sure,' their father told them. "'Then the axe will be very tight on the handle.'

The boys now tied their axe handles with their father's help, and Flint tied on Burr's, then all set to work with sandstone pebbles and rub them smooth. Strong Arms was soon done. He threw his old axe away, stuck his new one in the string around his waist, and went off to hunt. Burr took her digging stick from beside her door and hacked a point on it with her new axe. Then she burned the point in the fire until it was hard.

She took a basket in her hand and her baby on her back and went out of the cave. Old Flint and the boys rolled a stone up to the door. They keep out wolves and foxes. Then they all went into the woods and Burr began looking for things to eat. She found a root and pushed it out of the ground with her digging stick and threw it into her basket. It was the root of a wild turnip. She found other roots. Then there were wild carrots and celery. In the open places, tall grasses grew.

They were wild grains. These she bent over and beat with a stick until the ripe seeds fell into her basket. Under the oak trees she gathered acorns. Little wild pigs were there eating the acorns, and the boys ran one down and brought it, squealing to their mother. Burr laughed and said, You are little men. You will soon hunt for yourselves. It began to rain, and they all sat under a tree until the rain had passed. Chapter 6 The Coming of Fire

When Strongarm came back from the hunt, he found the cave cold and dark and wet. A stream of water was running down through the smoke hole. It had put out the fire. The ashes too were wet, and there were no coals from which to start the fire again. He looked at the black fireplace. Now I must walk all the way to Old Hickory's for fire. He grumbled. And it's growing dark. Tired and hungry, he left the cave. He had not gone far when a dead branch fell across his path. He jumped back.

The people who live in the trees did that. Some of those shadow people, he said to himself, they tried to kill me. The man who lives in the wind is angry too. Hear him roar. I do not like shadow people, he thought as he walked on. They live in trees and wind and rivers and fire and stones and everything, but you cannot see them. They will hurt you if you make them angry. I am afraid of them. I wish I had a torch to scare them off. All the other shadow people are afraid of the fireman.

Then to keep up his harp, he sang in a loud, gruff voice. Oh, why did the water put out the fire? Oh, why did the water put out the fire? Strongarm gave a loud call as he came up to Hickory's cave. The old man came to the door and asked what the trouble was. Trouble enough, growled Strongarm. My fire is out. I came for coals. Old Hickory gave a great roaring laugh. His wife laughed too, as she pushed the children aside and raked out coals.

These she put into a hollow branch that Strongarm handed her. They will keep alive in there, he said, even if it rains. Then with a good pine torch and his branch full of coals, he hurried home. When Burr came back to the cave, she too found the fire out. There was a deer on the floor, so she knew that Strongarm had come from the hut. The man has gone to Old Hickory's for fire, she told father. Um, said Flint, he might have rested his legs. I can get fire from stones.

"'From stones,' cried Burr, her face white. The old man quietly pulled two stones from his bag. One was flint, the other was quartz. He took dry leaves from his bag and rubbed them very fine between his hands and laid them on a rock. Over the leaves he held the two stones and began to strike one with the other. Burr and the boy's watch was scared faces. "'The fireman, will he not be angry?' she asked. Flint said nothing. He was striking the stones together. A spark came.

then another and another. He kept on striking very fast until the sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves. He put on more leaves and little sticks and soon there was a good fire blazing on the floor. From the stones Burr kept thinking as she shook her head and watched it out of the corner of her eye. When Strongarm came with the coals the cave was already warm and light and full of the smell of good things cooking. She looked at the fire and wondered where it had come from but said nothing.

Near the fire, his wife had a basket lined with clay. In it were the seeds of the field grains and acorns with hot coals. She shook the basket around and around until the seeds were roasted. Then from the ashes, she pulled the roots she had put there to roast. After Strongarm had eaten, he lay down by the fire. Nodding toward it, he said, where did you get it? Flint then told him that he had brought it out of stones. Strongarm sat up and looked hard at Flint.

Then Flint had to strike the stones together again to let Strongarm see the fire come out. Beaver Tail, an old ox master, showed me how to do it, said Flint. He has worked in stone all his life. For a long time he has known that fire lives in stone. He has seen sparks fly as he chipped his axes. One day, in making a spearhead, he struck a quartz pebble with his flint hammer stone. A big spark came. He struck again and again, and the sparks came fast and caught the dry grass at his feet.

Um, grunted Strongarm, wondering. He thought for a long time. Then he looked at Flint and said, Fire lives in wood, too. My axe handles grow warm as I rub them. The boys listened in wonder to their grandfather's strange story of making fire. After a time, Thorn said, We've always had fire in the cave. All the cave folks have it. They did not bring it from stones. Where did they get it? Once in the old days, Strongarm said, and turned to the boy.

A man saw fire come out of the sky and begin to eat up the woods. He could feel the fire from where he stood. It made him warm, and he liked it. But he was afraid to take any, for he thought the fireman might be angry. But at last he did take some. He kept it, and he grew to like it more and more. With it burning beside him, the night was not so dark, and he was not afraid. For the hungry wolf and tiger turned away. Teeth and claws could not fight fire. The other men saw that it was good to have fire.

So in time they took some of it, and ever since then every man has tried to keep his fire burning. It is better for us cave folks since fire came, Burr then said, nodding to the boys. Why, before it came there was no cooked meat, nor were there any sweet roasted seeds or roots, but the folks tore their meat from the animal where it was killed and stood by and ate it raw. Nor was there a home before fire came.

My grandmother told me that. Long ago, in the old days, the men and women wandered from place to place with their little children, and the women hunted and fished and fought beside the men. And at night, the people curled themselves around as the wild dogs do and slept on the ground, and the rain wet them, and the cold winds made them shiver. But after the fire came, all this was changed, for the fire would go out unless there was someone to keep it. So a man told his wife that she might stay and keep the fire.

and said that he would hunt for both. The woman then took a place that she liked near a stream and built a shelter of branches and made her fire there and kept it. And the man brought meat to her and she cooked it. Before very long, all the people were living in that way. And so ever since that time, the man has been the hunter and the woman has kept the fire and brought water from the stream and gathered seeds of ripe grasses. And always since then too, the family place has been about the fire.

We sit beside it and warm ourselves and work and talk and rest. And that is home. True, true, grunted old Flynn. And Strongarm nodded his head. Thank you for listening to Sleepy. Good night.