“Alone? Yes; why?” The youth’s face sobered in an instant. “Because I have no friends; that is why. You would not understand. None but men know what it means to live forever alone.”
The great Mammoth trembled. His ears fluttered like fans. Yes, he knew. Solitude was his own greatest dread. No lone beast or man need call vainly upon his sociable nature. The Ape Boy’s words and manner now impressed him more profoundly than even his first glimpse of the friendly, grinning face.
He wheeled and scrambled up to the rock-platform. “Come, Wulli,” he said. “The little red beast sleeps. We must remember our manners and show some courtesy to one who bears himself so boldly before the Rhinoceros, the Mammoth and Grun Waugh.”
IV
When on the rock-platform once more, Hairi and Wulli proceeded to make themselves at home. They settled down comfortably upon the rear cushions provided them by Nature and the Ape Boy squatted before them. The Mammoth’s attention was now attracted by the sight of those things which had first impressed him.
“Why do you beat those rocks together?” he inquired, pointing his trunk at the chips and flakes about him.
“The round stone is a hammer,” the Ape Boy replied. “The ragged ones are flints. I make them into weapons and tools. I leave one surface smooth and chip the other to form the cutting edges.”
“Why use flint, as you call it?” Hairi asked. “And why leave one side smooth? Oomp! Why do you bother with them at all?”