[Illustration: Cattle horns]
Early one morning Strongarm went out to hunt. Cattle with wild eyes were eating grass on the edge of the wood. Strongarm dropped to his knees and slowly, carefully, crawled through the bushes toward them.
"Just a little nearer, and I will throw my spear!" he thought.
A dry branch snapped beneath him! The wild cattle threw up their heads, and with a hurry of feet were soon lost to sight.
Frowning, the hunter got up from his knees and walked on. He saw a herd of mammoths, but he could not kill one of the big hairy elephants alone, so he turned away. He hunted all day long. He saw plenty of wild animals, but he could not get near enough to kill one. He saw wild ducks and grouse, but he had not brought his sling.
"Must I go hungry to-day?" he growled, frowning.
From far off came the yelping of dogs.
"The pack is hunting!" he shouted, with a roaring laugh. "I will follow the wild dogs and take some of the meat they leave!"
Led by the sounds, he found the dogs running down a bison. They followed it until it was too tired to fight, and then pulled it down and killed it. They ate all the meat they wanted and went away. Then Strongarm cut meat from the bison.
On his way home he saw a nest of wild puppies in a hollow tree.
"Um," he grunted, "the little wild goat that the children play with is quiet and tame. If a wild puppy grew up with them, would it be tame? Would it help me to hunt?"
He picked up a puppy. When he got home, he dropped the little ball of soft black wool between the two boys lying on a bear skin.
Then there were merry eyes, laughs, and soft calls:
"Here little pet!" and "Oh, the little sharp teeth!"
At last a tired little ball fell asleep in brown arms.
The puppy grew fast and was full of play. He followed the boys everywhere, and they called him "Wow wow."
One day they were playing by the high rock, when the puppy saw something in the woods and ran after it.
Pineknot called to him, "Come here, Wow wow!"
And the call came back from the rock, "Wow wow!"
"Oh, hear my talking shadow, brother," said Pineknot.
"Yes," said Thorn, laughing, "let us talk a while with our talking shadows."
So they lay down on the ground and began to call.
