THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

How the Children Played in Winter

When the children saw their fathers and mothers go out of doors, they, too, wanted to go. But they had no warm clothing, so their mothers tried to keep them in doors.

Sometimes Fleetfoot and Flaker teased to go out and play in the snow. And when the days were warm enough, Antler let them go out and play. But on very cold days they had to stay in the cave.

The children had good times in the cave. They played many animal games. They played they were grown men and women, and they made believe do all sorts of work. They peeked out of the cave many times each day. They heard their fathers and mothers talk. And they listened to Greybeard’s stories.

And so the children always knew what the men and women were doing. After a heavy fall of snow, they knew they would trap the animals in the drifts. When a hard crust formed, they knew they would dig pitfalls. Antler often wished that the children might play out doors every day. Greybeard wanted the boys to learn to make pitfalls and traps. But neither Antler nor Greybeard had thought of making clothing for little children.

The day Antler thought of making clothes for the boys, was the day they ran away to the pitfall. It was soon after Chipper came to the cave and said that two reindeer were in the pit.

When the boys heard what Chipper said, they were playing they were Bighorn and Chipper. They had tied the skins of wolves’ heads over their heads, and they let the rest of the skins hang down as if they were capes.

When the news came about the reindeer, everybody was excited. Everybody hurried to the pitfall so as to see the reindeer. Nobody noticed the boys steal out of the cave. Nobody noticed them run to the pitfall.

But soon after she started, Antler saw the tracks of their bare feet. She guessed at once where the boys had gone. And it was then that she thought of making them clothing.

While the children slept that night, Antler talked with the women. And when morning came, the women took skins and made the children warm clothes and moccasins.

When the children put on their wolf-skin suits, they looked like a pack of wolves. Sometimes they played they were wolves. Then they chased make-believe wild horses.

Sometimes when the children were playing in the snow, they found the antlers of a full-grown stag. The children began to look for the antlers of the full-grown stags in early winter. But they knew that the other reindeer kept their antlers until early spring.

An old stag’s antlers were large and strong, and the children liked to find them. They would pick them up and hold them in their hands and would then make believe they were Cave-men trapping reindeer in the snow.

One day Greybeard showed Fleetfoot and Flaker how to trap the reindeer in the snow. He showed them how to dig a pitfall in the drifts. The boys found a large drift near the trail and they cut out a large block of snow. They hollowed a deep pit under the crust which they took pains not to break. Then they fitted the block of snow in its place, thus covering the pit.

To make sure that the reindeer would come to the pitfall they scattered moss over the thin crust. Then Greybeard taught them to say,

“Come down to the river, reindeer;
Come down to the river to drink.
Come eat the moss I have spread for you,
Come and fall into my trap.”

All the Cave-men believed that these words would charm the reindeer to the spot. They always muttered such lines as charms when they went out to hunt. And so Greybeard taught the boys the lines, for he wanted them to know all the Cave-men’s charms.

THINGS TO DO

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