Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

What do you think the Cave-men will do while the old man and Sharpeyes are gone?

How will they keep the animals out of the cave?

The day after the old man and Sharpeyes went away, a cave-bear came up toward the cave.

The women sent the children into the cave and grasped their weapons to help the men.

The bear turned and went away.

But the Cave-men were afraid that he would come back.

They could defend themselves at the mouth of the cave, but they had to go out to get something to eat.

They were afraid to leave the children alone for fear the cave-bear might get them.

At last they thought of shutting them up in the cave.

They had never seen nor heard of a door, but they knew how to heap up piles of stones.

So they rolled up large stones and piled them up until part of the entrance was blocked.

They did not want to wall up the whole mouth, for the stones were too heavy to move every day.

But they wanted to close the mouth of the cave so as to keep the cave-bear out.

Everybody tried to find a way to do it, and at last Firekeeper got an idea for a door.

Perhaps you would not call what she made a door, but it was a good door for that time.

Firekeeper made it of tough branches.

She stuck several large branches into the ground and wove smaller ones among them.

When the door was finished, the women pulled up the large branches and carried the wicker-work door to the cave.

They set it between the stones so as to close the mouth.

After that they shut the children in the cave when they went out to hunt.

But the cave-bear still prowled around.

When the women came home from the woods one day, the cave-bear was at the door.

They rushed upon him with their knives and spears.

They were torn and bruised by the cave-bear, but he never troubled them any more.

THINGS TO DO