"Wait," said Mother Nature. "I will try something else. There is a snake lying among the roots of the tree. I will make him crawl over the stick and move it a little. Then perhaps the Ape-Man will notice it." So Mother Nature called the Wind to her, and told him to blow gently against the tree and cause some dead limbs and twigs to fall. The Wind blew, and snapped off some little twigs, and one of them fell near the snake and woke it up. Then the snake squirmed off, and in doing so he moved the stick a little, so that the Ape-Man, whose eyes were very sharp, noticed it as it glistened in the sun. He got up from where he was sitting, and went over to the stick and gazed at it stupidly for quite a while. "Goodness, how slow he is," said the Sun. "Hasn't the creature any brains at all?" "Not much," replied Mother Nature, "but I think he has an idea at last—just a faint little idea moving about in his brain like a shadow. See, he is going to pick up the stick." The Sun looked, and saw the Ape-Man take the stick from the ground. He held it in his hand for several moments, looking at it. Then he looked at the bunch of fruit, and after that, he looked back at the stick again. When he had done this two or three times, he took the stick, and going to the edge of the cliff, poked awkwardly at one of the remaining bunches of fruit. "He had better look out," said the Sun, "or he will knock that one down and lose it too." He had no sooner spoken, than the heavy bunch of fruit fell from the limb and dashed to the rocks far below. The Ape-Man gave a long cry of anger and disappointment. Then he began poking at the third and last bunch. But this time he was more careful. After a few moments the hook at the end of the stick caught around the limb, and when the Ape-Man pulled on it, he saw that the fruit began to move toward him. He chattered with joy, at this, and pulled harder and harder, and at last the slender branch bent until the bunch of fruit was right in his hands. Then the Ape-Man dropped the stick, and sitting down on the grass ate the fruit as quickly as he could. After that he threw himself down in the grass and went to sleep. The Sun, who had been watching him carefully, laughed. "Such a little thing, to make so much fuss about," he said. [Illustration: THE FIRST THINKER The hook at the end of the stick caught around the limb, and when the Ape-Man pulled on it, he saw that the fruit began to move toward him.]