[Illustration: The people took the fish in their hands]
"Maybe you would like salt on your fish," said Foam to Thorn.
She took a little in her fingers and put it on his fish.
"That makes it taste better. Where do you get salt?"
"We burn sea-weed and get it."
When all the fish had been eaten, Periwinkle called, "They are going to hack down a tree. Come on, if you want to see it."
As the boys ran through the woods, Thorn saw nothing but fir trees.
"Have you no trees but firs?" he asked.
"No, only firs—firs, little and big, as far as you can see."
The boys followed the sounds that rang through the woods. Soon they saw men busy about a tree. One man was hacking a ring around it near the ground. When that was done, he hacked another ring above the first. His stone ax did not cut deep. And the wood between the two rings stayed there; it did not fly off in chips. So both men began to beat the wood between the rings with the flat side of their axes. Around and around the tree they went, and beat the chips to get them loose. Then, with a piece of antler, they worked under the chips until they came off. After that they hacked again in the rings, and again beat the wood between, and worked off the chips.
