The grains had fallen in a sheltered place where the new green blades were not trampled down. In time the stalks became yellow and dry, and at their tips were more husks filled with smooth brown grains. When Stitcher saw them she cried out in delight.
“They are like the berries I scattered on the ground,” she exclaimed. “I will scatter these again. I like to see them grow.”
So, instead of eating the brown kernels, Stitcher shook them all out of the husks on the ground. This time she watched them, and was careful to see that no one walked upon them. After a long time there were more yellow stalks and more sweet, nutty grains.
“Here are a great many berries,” said Stitcher, as she shook them out into a big wooden bowl. “We will eat some of them. But most of them I will scatter again. By and by there will be enough so we can all have some of them to eat.”
After that Stitcher had some grain growing near her cave all the time. Many heard of this wonderful new food and came long distances to get some of the kernels. And soon most of the cave people were raising little patches of wheat in the open spaces about their caves.
“We will never be hungry again,” said Stitcher.
Years after that Stitcher lost all her teeth and could not eat the hard grains. So she put some of them into a hollowed stone and pounded them with another stone till they were soft. In this way the cave people came at last to grind grain for bread. But it was many, many years before they learned how to do that. For a long time they ate it just as it came from the husk.
CHAPTER VIII
The Pictures on the Wall
Bek, the oldest man in the Clan, lived in a cave not very far from the one where Flame kept the Great Fire.
It was a wonderful cave, more wonderful even, the boys thought, than Flame’s. They were almost afraid to go into it, however, for the cave people thought old Bek had the power of making charms.