At length the children began to take turns at playing they were cave-bears. Now it was Fleetfoot’s turn to be the bear, and when Antler saw him she laughed.
The Cave-men looked up in surprise. Everybody was so hungry and cross it seemed strange to hear any one laugh. But Antler really was laughing.
Fleetfoot had found a cave-bear’s skin on a ledge in the cave. He had wrapped it around him so that he looked like a little cave-bear. The children kept calling him “little bear,” and he was trying to act like one.
Soon all the people were laughing. They forgot, for the time, how hungry they were. And the next day they had meat, for it was warm enough to go hunting.
Many times after that the children played cave-bear. Many times the people laughed when they saw the children dressed in cave-bears’ skins. Once when Antler looked at them, she got an idea about making clothes.
When Antler took a large skin and wrapped it around her, Fleetfoot thought that she was going to play “bear.” But Antler was not playing. She was thinking of the cold days when the children had no food. She was thinking that if she could make a warm dress, perhaps she could go out in the bitter cold.
Antler talked with Birdcatcher about it, and Birdcatcher helped her fit the skin. Birdcatcher fitted the skin of the head over Antler’s head so as to make a warm hood. Then she run a cord through the slits along the edges and tied the ends under Antler’s chin.
Antler fastened the skin down the front with buckles. She covered her arms with the skin of the forelegs. She cut off the skin that hung below the knees, and afterward used it to make a pair of leggings.
When the garment was fitted, Antler took it off. Then the women sat down and worked until it was done. They punched holes through the edges with a bone awl. Then they threaded the sinew through the holes in an “over-and-over seam.”