The First Days of Man. Kummer Frederic Arnold

had done. He did not know that the flesh of fish, or animals, was good to eat.

      As he held the fish in his hands, he smelt the fresh blood from the wound made by the claws of the fish-hawk and it made him hungrier than ever. Half starved as he was, he could have eaten anything, and without thinking any more about it, he tore the fish apart and put a piece of it in his mouth. It tasted strange to him, and he did not like it, but his stomach was very empty, and almost before he knew what he was about, he had eaten the whole fish.

      After that, he felt better, and sat on the edge of the lake for a long time, watching the fish swimming about in the shallow water. Then he thought of his wife. She would want something to eat, too. How could he get another fish? He tried for a long time to catch one in his hands, but they were too quick for him.

      Then he thought of his club, and taking it in his hands, he did his best to hit one of the fish with it, but every time he failed. Once he struck so hard that the club was splintered against a rock, and the heavy end of it broken off. Adh looked at the piece left in his hands and felt sad, for he loved his club, and always carried it about with him. Pretty soon he noticed, as he felt the broken and splintered end of the stick, that it was very sharp, and he thought to himself, why could he not drive the sharp end into the back of one of the fish, as it lay in the mud. It took him a long time to do this, but by lying among the rushes, and keeping very quiet, he finally succeeded. Reaching down, he seized the fish he had speared in his hands.

      "Look!" said Mother Nature to the Sun. "My new Man has made himself a spear."

      When Adh gave the fish to his wife, she did not understand what he wanted her to do with it, but finally, by chattering, and making signs, he got her to eat a little of it. The new kind of food made her rather sick, at first, but after a while, as there was nothing else to eat, she made a meal of it, and from then on Adh went to the lake every day and speared a fish or two for their dinner. By the time the cold rainy season was over, and the warm weather had come again, he and his wife had grown quite used to eating fish, and had even got to like it.

      Mother Nature watched all this and smiled to herself.

      "See how quickly my Ape-Man is learning to think," she said to the Sun. "Already he has found a home, and taught himself to get food from the rivers and lakes, instead of from the trees and bushes, and he has made himself a spear. I knew he was not going to let himself starve."

      "What is he going to do next?" asked the Sun, who was getting very much interested in the funny little Ape-Man.

      "I think I shall teach him to fight," Mother Nature said.

      "To fight? What for?"

      "So that he can protect himself against his enemies. When I took away his tail, you said he would either starve, or be eaten up. Well, he hasn't starved, and I can't let him be eaten up. He will have plenty of enemies, before he gets through, and if he doesn't know how to fight, they will destroy him."

      "Will this thing you call Love help him to fight?" asked the Sun.

      "Yes. He will fight twice as hard, because of his love for his wife and child. If you don't believe it, just wait and see."

       CHAPTER VI

      ADH'S FIRST FIGHT

      Wherever he went, Adh carried about with him a club. He had found himself a new one, now that his first was broken, and this new club was short and heavy, with a great hard knob on the end of it, as big as his two fists. He had broken it from the limb of a tree, and rubbed and polished it on the rocky floor of the cave until it was hard and smooth. Besides the club, he had made himself a long straight spear, with the end of it rubbed to a point against the rocks. He used the spear for getting fish, and had become so skilful that he hardly ever missed them.

      One night, when the cold rains were over, and the trees in the valley were covered with fresh new leaves, Adh was sitting on a flat rock in front of his cave, eating a large fish.

      He was not thinking of anything, except how good the fish tasted, when suddenly his quick ears heard a sound, and looking up he saw a great beast, like a bear, covered with hair, making its way slowly up the rocky hillside toward him.

      It was a huge, clumsy animal, much larger than himself, but it walked on all fours, snuffing the air as though it smelt the fish Adh had been eating. The Ape-Man had never seen such a creature before.

      The hair on Adh's neck stood straight up, for he was very much frightened, and his first thought was to run away as fast as his legs would carry him. Then he remembered his wife and child, lying asleep inside the cave, and instead of running away, he picked up some heavy stones and threw them at the oncoming enemy.

      One of the stones hit the beast on the shoulder, but instead of stopping, it gave a grunt of rage and came on faster than ever, straight toward the cave.

      Adh picked up his club from where it lay on the rock beside him and stood before the door of the cave, chattering and screaming with anger and fear. His wife, awakened by the noise, came out of the cave and stood just behind him, holding the young one in her arms, and also uttering shrill cries.

      The creature's black snout, with small fiery red eyes, came slowly forward until Adh could feel its breath on his face. Then, just as the beast started to rear up on its hind legs, Adh raised his club, and springing forward, struck the animal across the nose with all his might.

      The Ape-Man was very strong, and his blow was a terrible one. The great beast gave a howl of pain, and rearing up, tried to reach Adh with its huge claws. But Adh's fear had all left him, now. His eyes gleamed, and his mouth foamed with rage. Raising his club he struck again and again, until the beast, with blood streaming from its crushed snout, turned tail and ran away down the rocky hillside. There was a great deep wound in Adh's breast, where the claws of the beast had torn him, but he hardly knew it, in his joy at winning the fight. He pounded his clenched fist on his chest until the sound echoed through the valley, and uttered shrill cries of defiance.

      His wife came up to him and stroked and patted him proudly, chattering all the time with pleasure. This made Adh feel very happy, and he pounded his club on the rocks and grunted with delight. He had made this great beast fear him, and the thought filled him with pride.

      That night, as he lay on the floor of the cave, a terrible fear came over him. What if the creature should come back again, while he was asleep, and carry him off. He got up, and crouched for a long time in the door of the cave, his club ready in his hands. After a while he grew sleepy and wished that there were something across the cave door to keep the beast out, in case he came back. The thought worried him so much that at last he went out, and getting four or five large stones, rolled them to the mouth of the cave, and after crawling inside, fixed them so that the hole by which he crept in and out was almost blocked. After that he went to sleep without feeling afraid.