Greybeard was watching beside the boy when Antler arrived. He helped her set the broken bones and then they prepared to carry him home. [Illustration: _What the Cave-men did for Flaker._] Taking the skin which the women brought, Antler stretched it upon the ground. Then the women helped her lift the boy and lay him upon the skin. Gently they laid him upon the stretcher. Softly they stepped as they carried him home. They tended him carefully many days. Flaker's wounds soon healed. But when he was strong enough to walk, the Cave-men saw that he was lame. Flaker was always lame after that. The bones had slipped out of place and now it was too late to reset them. Afterwards the Cave-men learned better ways of setting broken bones. They found better ways of holding them in place while they grew together. Perhaps the Cave-men learned this by watching the wild animals. Some birds, when they break a leg, hold the bones in place with wet clay. Sometimes we use a plaster cast, but the Cave-men knew nothing about such a way. The days seemed long to Flaker while he was getting well. Everybody was kind to him, but it seemed hard to keep quiet when everybody else was moving about. When Fleetfoot went out to hunt, Flaker wanted to go too. But he could not go, and so Fleetfoot used to tell him everything that happened. #THINGS TO DO# _Show how the women helped Antler put Flaker upon the skin. Show how they carried him home. Draw one of the pictures._ _Find out why a child's bones will grow together more easily than an old person's bones. See if you can find out what bones are made of. Soak a bone in acid and see what happens to it. Burn a bone and see what happens to it. Why do a child's bones break less easily than an old person's?_ _If there is a spring in your neighborhood, go and see it. Find out where the water comes from._ XXVII THINGS TO THINK ABOUT If Flaker is lame, how will he be able to get food? What do you think he can do that will be useful to the clan? Do you think the Cave-men took as good care of the sick, and the lame, and the old people, as we do? What could they do for them? Why did the men use weapons more than tools? Why did the women use tools more than weapons? Think of as many tools as you can that the women used. _How Flaker Learned to Make Weapons of Bone_ Before Flaker was hurt he and Fleetfoot had planned to do many things. But now Flaker was lame, and all the Cave-men knew he would never be able to hunt. When Flaker first knew it, he was very sad. And so Fleetfoot tried to comfort him. Each day he brought him a bird or a rabbit, and he told him all that had happened. For a while Flaker thought that if a man could not hunt, there was nothing else for him to do. But soon he found there were many things to do besides going out to hunt.