Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

If you were going to live in a cave that had been taken from a wild animal, what would you do to make it comfortable?

What do you think the Cave-men did?

What do you think the Cave-men found in the cave?

What kind of beds do you think they made?

If they built a fire inside the cave do you think that the smoke would pass out?

Where do you think that they would make their fireplace? Where do we make our fireplaces?

How do we keep the smoke from getting into our rooms?

The morning after the feast Firekeeper built a fire inside the cave.

Then all went in to look at the cave, but the smoke soon drove them out.

So Firekeeper raked out the fire with a branch of spruce wood and waited for the smoke to go out.

Then the Cave-men took firebrands and crept inside, and stood up and walked around.

Bones of animals were strewn upon the rough rocky floor.

Pieces of rock shaped like icicles hung from the roof and stood up from some parts of the floor.

Drops of water trickled down from the roof.

Layers of rock jutted out from the walls like shelves.

The Cave-men walked through the large dry cavern until they came to a narrow passage.

Then they stopped to see where it led.

They peered into the darkness, but saw nothing.

They listened, but heard no sound.

Since no one wanted to creep through the passage, they turned back toward the mouth.

The dry cavern near the mouth was large enough for a home, so the Cave-men thought no more of the narrow passage.

Before the men went out of the cave they picked up armfuls of bones for weapons.

They carried them out by the fire and sat down and worked upon them.

The women cleared away piles of bones, so as to make a smooth place to sleep.

Then they went out among the trees to find something to cover the floor.

They broke off small branches of evergreens and carried them into the cave.

The children brought armfuls of moss and leaves, and scattered them over the hard rocky floor.

When the beds were finished they made a fireplace.

They dug a shallow hole just outside the cave and walled it around with stones.

Perhaps you would not call this a good fireplace, but it was the best fireplace any one had at that time.

THINGS TO DO