The First Days of Man, as Narrated Quite Simply for Young Readers

by Frederic Arnold Kummer

CHAPTER III

THE APE THAT WALKED LIKE A MAN

When Mother Nature told the Sun that the Earth was at last ready for Man, the Sun did not quite understand her.

"What kind of creature is this Man you are always talking about?" he asked.

"Wait and see," Mother Nature replied, "and while you are waiting, just keep your eye on that funny little animal running about there in the woods—the one with the long arms and legs and tail. I'll be back after a while and tell you more about him." Then she went away.

The Sun looked down at the creature Mother Nature had pointed out to him, and saw a queer little animal, covered with hair, and looking somethink like a very small monkey. This animal liked the fruits and nuts of the trees, and spent most of his time in the tree-tops, but sometimes he would go down to the ground, and run about through the thick jungle forests on all four feet, like a squirrel. But when he wanted food, or when some of the fierce flesh-eating animals attacked him, he would quickly climb up into a tall tree.

The trees in those early forests grew very close together, and the little monkey animals found that they could swing from limb to limb with their arms, and thus travel for miles, from one tree to another, without going down to the ground at all. When they first took to living in the trees they had smooth skins like their parents the reptiles, but as thousands of years passed, hair grew out all over them, to protect them and keep them warm during the chilly rains.

For a long time the Sun watched these creatures, while Mother Nature was away, and he saw them slowly change. For one thing they grew larger and stronger all the time, and came to look more and more like the monkeys and apes we find in the jungle country even to-day. But still they were not apes, but from them, both the apes and Man, are descended.

From their habit of swinging from limb to limb, or from strong vines, like a trapeze performer in a circus, these ape-like animals got more and more in the habit of standing upright, balancing themselves on their hind feet on one limb, while they held on with their fore feet to another limb higher up. But still whenever they went down to the ground they ran about on all fours.