Cave dwellers -- Juvenile literature; Prehistoric peoples -- Juvenile literature
True it was, that their enemies of the forest throve and grew strong
also. The green snakes awoke and wound themselves around the branches of
trees, with eyes that glistened and glowed toward every living creature.
And the brush grew thick and abounded with creeping things.
The cubs of the black bear flourished and the fierce hyena yielded
bounteously to her young. Great flocks of strange and familiar birds
darkened the sky and swooped down upon the berry bushes and swept them
bare. But for all these there was enough and to spare for the wants of
the Cave Dwellers.
Even the limbs of Strong Arm, the wise and brave, grew soft during this
season, for his stomach was always filled. The fierce rays of the
tropical sun beat down upon the heads of the Cave Dwellers, filling them
with a sweet drowsiness. There was nothing to drive them forth from the
shades of the Hollow, where the waters of the river washed the green
rocks, and teemed with thousands of golden and silver fish.
It was not in the season of plenty that the Cave People learned new ways
to trap the black bear, or to snare the wild pig. Nor did they at that
time seek to fashion new weapons or to travel strange paths. Rarely they
plied the waters. These were not the days of progress or discovery, and
the minds of the Cave People grew torpid and they forgot many things
they had learned in the times of hunger and activity.
The hands of the youths and maidens lost a portion of their cunning and
the older members of the tribe grew lazy and dull. For the bread fruit
ripened and the tubers grew thick and all the land smiled with a
bountiful supply of daily food.
The season of plenty was come. And the Cave People loved and laughed and
feasted and were content. Few dangers menaced during those days and the
members of the tribe forgot fears and drowsed in peace.
But the children of the Cave People grew strong, lifting their heads.
The fierce rays of the sun were unable to subdue them. Laughing Boy,
grown tall and straight, was weaned at last. Always he laughed, showing
his large white teeth, like a dark dog snapping at a bone. And he danced
and ran about, spilling the strong life that surged up within him and
would not be stilled.
With his young friend, The Fish, whom the Cave People had given his name
because of his early skill in swimming, Laughing Boy learned many
things. Their joy and juvenility seemed exhaustless, and their romps and
chatterings ended only with the days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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