IV. AB AND OAK. V. A GREAT ENTERPRISE. VI. A DANGEROUS VISITOR. VII. THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS. VIII. SABRE-TOOTH AND RHINOCEROS. IX. DOMESTIC MATTERS. X. OLD MOK, THE MENTOR. XI. DOINGS AT HOME. XII. OLD MOK'S TALES. XIII. AB'S GREAT DISCOVERY. XIV. A LESSON IN SWIMMING. XV. A MAMMOTH AT BAY. XVI. THE FEAST OF THE MAMMOTH. XVII. THE COMRADES. XVIII. LOVE AND DEATH. XIX. A RACE WITH DREAD. XX. THE FIRE COUNTRY. XXI. THE WOOING OF LIGHTFOOT. XXII. THE HONEYMOON. XXIII. MORE OF THE HONEYMOON. XXIV. THE FIRE COUNTRY AGAIN. XXV. A GREAT STEP FORWARD. XXVI. FACING THE RAIDER. XXVII. LITTLE MOK. XXVIII. THE BATTLE OF THE BARRIERS. XXIX. OLD HILLTOP'S LAST STRUGGLE. XXX. OUR VERY GREAT GRANDFATHER. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BY SIMON HARMON VEDDER "HIS GREAT TRUNK SHOT DOWNWARD AND BACKWARD, PICKED UP THE MAN, AND HURLED HIM YARDS AWAY" MAP "AB SEIZED UPON TWO OF THE SNARLING CUBS, AND OAK DID THE SAME" "AB SPRANG TO HIS FEET, AND DREW HIS ARROW TO THE HEAD" "THE YOUNG MEN CALLED TO HER, BUT SHE MADE NO ANSWER. SHE BUT FISHED AWAY DEMURELY" "AB STOOD THERE WEAPONLESS, A CREATURE WANDERING OF MIND" "WITH A GREAT LEAP HE WENT AT AND THROUGH THE CURLING CREST OF THE YELLOW FLAME!" "THE GIRL COWERED BEHIND A REFUGE OF LEAVES AND BRANCHES" "UPON THE STRONG SHAFT OF ASH THE MONSTER WAS IMPALED" THE STORY OF AB. CHAPTER I. THE BABE IN THE WOODS. Drifted beech leaves had made a soft, clean bed in a little hollow in a wood. The wood was beside a river, the trend of which was toward the east. There was an almost precipitous slope, perhaps a hundred and fifty feet from the wood, downward to the river. The wood itself, a sort of peninsula, was mall in extent and partly isolated from the greater forest back of it by a slight clearing. Just below the wood, or, in fact, almost in it and near the crest of the rugged bank, the mouth of a small cave was visible. It was so blocked with stones as to leave barely room for the entrance of a human being. The little couch of beech leaves already referred to was not many yards from the cave.