Chew-chew soon found that unless she had help the hogs would eat all the nuts, for as fast as she drove one hog away another one came back. Chew-chew screamed for help and the women came with their digging-sticks.
The women drove the hogs away, but they returned again and again. And so the women learned to keep a close watch while they were gathering nuts. But in spite of all their trouble, they had a good time that day.
It was not until they were starting home that they found that a serious thing had happened. They did not know all about it then, and some of them never knew.
It was all about Fleetfoot. When Eagle-eye looked for him, he was nowhere to be seen. At first she thought he was with Chew-chew, but Chew-chew had not seen him since morn.
Fleetfoot had played near his mother nearly all day. He had cracked nuts; he had climbed trees; he had mimicked the squirrels; he had scattered burrs in the rabbits’ paths, and he had done all sorts of things.
But now Fleetfoot was lost, and everybody began to hunt for him. Eagle-eye found the stones he had left only a short time before. She found his tracks and followed them until they crossed the boundary of the hunting ground. There she lost all trace of him. She called, but the “caw-caw” of a crow was the only answer.
The men heard her call, and came to join in the search. But in spite of all they could do, they did not find the child.
And so the Cave-men thought they would never see Fleetfoot again. They thought he had lost his way in the forest and had been killed by a cave-bear. For a few days they mourned for the child, then they spoke no more of him.
THINGS TO DO
Tell a story of what happened one time when you went nutting.