“I tell you what we could do,” said Grannie. “If we had some water, we could have a place to boil the meat all ready when the hunters come back. Who’ll go for water?”
“I’ll go,” said Firetop.
“So will I,” said Blackbird.
“And I,” said Squaretoes.
They were all boys. Robin and Firefly were the only little girls in the clan.
“Get the gourds and the pig-skin and run along, then,” said Grannie. “Keep a sharp lookout, for you know the wild beasts will soon be out for their night hunting.”
Firetop ran for the skin of the wild boar which was in the cave. It was their water-cask. The other boys got gourds with holes cut in them to make dippers, and then they were ready to start.
Grannie took three sticks of pine and laid the ends in the fire. When they were burning well, she gave one of them to each of the boys for a torch.
“It isn’t dark yet, but you will be safer with these, anyway,” she said.
As soon as the three boys had gone skipping and whooping down the path to the river, Grannie and the girls set about getting a kettle ready. They hollowed out a hole in the ground, not far from the fire. When it was deep enough they lined it with a heavy piece of hide. They put stones around the edge of it to keep it in place. Then they gathered piles of small stones and threw them in the fire to get hot. By the time all this was done the boys were back with the pig-skin full of water. Grannie poured it into the hollow dish in the ground.