“I can if I will,” the other corrected. “That is different.”
“Are you afraid to fight?”
“I have held my own against Grun Waugh these many days,” the Ape Boy replied simply. “Have I shown fear of the Mammoth and Rhinoceros?”
“No;” Wulli gave an emphatic grunt. “You have not; but I fail to understand,” and he looked thoughtfully at the ground as though at a loss what to say next.
“When I was young,” the youth continued; “none frowned upon my doing the work I like best—making flint tools and weapons. I could make them well—better than any grown man or woman—although I have always striven to do better. I did little else, but finally the time came when my people thought me big and strong enough to play a man’s part. They gave me an ax and dart and sent me forth with our best fighters.”
“That was right,” Wulli observed with an emphatic shake of his head.
“But I refused to fight.”
“Oo!” The Rhinoceros was greatly distressed.
“And I would not hunt.”