when the luscious fruit ripened and fell and the nut season came around, the time of joy and plenty was at hand for the cave dwellers. then millions of fish sought the shallows of the river; nourishing plants, with a strange bittersweet flavor, thrust up their heads, and the nests were full of eggs for the hand of him who cared to gather.
it was then only that the cave people were never hungry. with plenty abounding always in the forest, they feasted continually and grew fat against those periods of famine that spread through the long after-suns and the dreary wet seasons.
true it was, that their enemies of the forest throve and grew strong also. the green snakes awoke and wound themselves around the branches of trees, with eyes that glistened and glowed toward 54every living creature. and the brush grew thick and abounded with creeping things.
the cubs of the black bear flourished and the fierce hyena yielded bounteously to her young. great flocks of strange and familiar birds darkened the sky and swooped down upon the berry bushes and swept them bare. but for all these there was enough and to spare for the wants of the cave dwellers.
even the limbs of strong arm, the wise and brave, grew soft during this season, for his stomach was always filled. the fierce rays of the tropical sun beat down upon the heads of the cave dwellers, filling them with a sweet drowsiness. there was nothing to drive them forth from the shades of the hollow, where the waters of the river washed the green rocks, and teemed with thousands of golden and silver fish.
it was not in the season of plenty that the cave people learned new ways to trap the black bear, or to snare the wild pig. nor did they at that time seek to fashion new weapons or to travel strange paths. rarely they plied the waters. these were not the days of progress or discovery, and the minds of the cave people grew torpid and they forgot many things they had learned in the times of hunger and activity.
the hands of the youths and maidens lost a portion of their cunning and the older members of the tribe grew lazy and dull. for the bread fruit 55ripened and the tubers grew thick and all the land smiled with a bountiful supply of daily food.
the season of plenty was come. and the cave people loved and laughed and feasted and were content. few dangers menaced during those days and the members of the tribe forgot fears and drowsed in peace.
but the children of the cave people grew strong, lifting their heads. the fierce rays of the sun were unable to subdue them. laughing boy, grown tall and straight, was weaned at last. always he laughed, showing his large white teeth, like a dark dog snapping at a bone. and he danced and ran about, spilling the strong life that surged up within him and would not be stilled.
with his young friend, the fish, whom the cave people had given his name because of his early skill in swimming, laughing boy learned many things. their joy and juvenility seemed exhaustless, and their romps and chatterings ended only with the days.
not many years before, the fathers and mothers of the cave people had come down out of the trees to dwell. the tree dwellers found shelter in the natural caves that lined the river bank. in time they learned to walk erect, on two legs. the cave dwellers resembled them very closely. the arms of the cave people had grown shorter as they ceased to swing themselves constantly, from tree to tree. the thumb of the foot disappeared 56and they now possessed a great toe in its place. still the feet of the cave dwellers retained the power of prehension. they were able to hold—to cling awkwardly with them.
in the children this power was very marked. on the skirts of the forest they loved to clamber up the slim trees, poise on the swaying boughs and swing themselves from branch to branch, like young monkeys. this gave them strength of limb and quickness of vision. soon they learned to choose those branches strong enough to bear their weight, as they flung themselves through great gaps of space to seize the boughs of a neighboring tree.
but the fear of the green snakes, that wound about and hid themselves among the leaves, kept them near the hollow. only on rare occasions did they penetrate deep into the forest.
among many of the savages living to-day great skill and agility prevails. we are told of tribes whose members are able, by a partial circling of the trunks, with their arms, and by the clinging and pressing of flexible toes, to mount trees in a sort of walk.
jack london writes that this is a common practice of the natives of the south sea islands. and we are assured by several young friends that the art has not wholly disappeared among our own boys.
many were the feats accomplished among the 57swaying branches of the trees by laughing boy, and his friend, the fish, in their frolics many years ago. their feet were never still. their jabberings flowed without end. tireless as the birds they were and gay as youth itself.
one day, as they played, laughing boy found a flat, curved piece of wood. it was as long as the arm of a man and had been split from a tree during a storm. laughing boy hurled the stick far into the air at his friend, the fish. but the fish threw himself from the bank, into the river, to avoid it. and he screamed with joy as he disappeared beneath the waters. then a very strange thing happened. for the flat stick swished through the air, like a great bird, far over the river. then it turned about and whirled slowly back again, where it fell at the feet of laughing boy. at once the hair of his head rose with fear, and he ran to his mother uttering shrill squeals of alarm. quack quack awoke from her sleep and snatched up a bone weapon, for she thought one of the forest enemies had attacked laughing boy.
but he pointed only to the strange, curved stick and clung to her, in terror. all the while he jabbered wildly. quack quack desired to quiet his fear, so she flung the stick far out over the river, as he had done. then again the big stick swished through the air, turned about and whirled gently back, striking her arm. then it fell at her feet.
whereupon laughing boy screamed and ran 58into the cave. then a great fear assailed quack quack and she added her cries to his. and all the cave people hurried to her side to learn the cause of so much trouble.
again the strange stick was hurled toward the river, and once more it returned. and all the cave people marveled and were afraid. for they could not understand a stick that returned when it was thrown.
strong arm only was brave enough to touch it with his fingers. his face bore a strange wonder that such things could be possible to a mere stick. and he carried it to his cave, where he hid it among the rocks, under the dead leaves.
but when the nuts were gone and the season of plenty had passed away, and there was need for the cave people to hunt, he brought it forth again. after many seasons, a flat stick, curved in the manner of the one first found by laughing boy, came to be used as a weapon by the cave people.
perhaps you have seen the painted boomerangs sold in some of our stores to-day. they are the same shape as those first used by the ancient cave dwellers. a small pasteboard boomerang, cut the right size and shape will interest the children. when struck with a lead pencil, it will whirl through the air and return, just as the larger and more formidable boomerangs did when thrown at their enemies by the cave dwellers many thousands of years ago.
59after a time the alarm and excitement caused by laughing boy’s discovery of the first rude boomerang, died away. the strange stick no longer menaced them, and the cave people returned to their feasting and their slumbers. and laughing boy and his young friend, the fish, resumed their play.
they chased each other up and down the hollow or concealed themselves in the long grass that lined the river bank. at each discovery they tossed and rolled over and over again, like puppies, wild with the exuberance of young blood.
it was one of their great pleasures to lie chattering in the grass on the top of the river bank and roll, tumbling, down into the clear waters. then, amid a great splashing and much laughter, to clamber out and up the slope again. thus the children of the cave dwellers romped and grew strong, during the season of plenty, in the days of old.
one day it chanced that laughing boy stumbled over a large cocoanut, during his frolics with his young friend. he seized it in his arms and danced about, jabbering with glee, that his friend might know the treasure he had found.
in an instant the fish was upon him, but laughing boy rolled over in the grass and bounded away, with squeals of delight. then, for no reason in the world, save that the blood pounded 60riotously in his veins, he darted into the wood, bearing his prize.
the fish followed, close on his heels, as laughing boy threw shrill mocking cries over his shoulder. the fish gave answer with a whirling stone, while more mocking cries from laughing boy announced that his aim was bad. and, o, the fun of the chase through the deep woods! the rollicking laugh and the deep shouts of the fish as they startled the birds from their nests in the old forest!
the brush grew thicker with every step and the trees locked branches more closely with their neighbors for want of room to stretch them freely toward the sun.
when he reached the tall lautania palm which marked the point beyond which it was unsafe for the children of the cave people to go alone, laughing boy concealed himself in the brush. he thought to be able to elude his brown playmate, and while the fish sought him beyond the bunya-bunya, to dash backward, toward the hollow.
in a moment came the fish. but the deep breathing of laughing boy and a rustling of the bushes made known his hiding place. as his friend parted the thicket, laughing boy had time only to crawl out on the opposite side and dart onward ere he was caught. a shout and a shrill chattering told his victory, and he disappeared again. 61the fish grunted his displeasure, but he was not far behind.
in the tall bambusa laughing boy again hid himself, and it was by the tripping of the fish over a creeping vine that he escaped. but his foot blundered on a cone from the bunya tree and the cocoanut slipped from his hands. the two boys threw themselves downward and rolled over each other in their eagerness to recover it.
the fish gave a shout of joy and made away, holding the cocoanut above his head for laughing boy to see. a warm sweat covered their bodies and their bronze skins shone like burnished copper.
on and on they ran. further and still further they plunged into the depths of the forest. they forgot the dangers that lurked there and the wise warnings of the cave people. they forgot their playmate, crooked leg, who had wandered into the wood and vanished from the face of the hollow. fears they had none, only laughter and the joy of abundant youth!
all this time the grown members of the tribe of the cave people slept securely in the cool of the hollow. their protruding bellies told of continued eating and no one among them marked the absence of the fish and laughing boy.
thicker and more dark grew the forest which the boys penetrated. the way grew rough, and the tough vines trailing through the undergrowth 62often tripped them. still they lunged forward with no thought of turning their faces toward the hollow.
it was a crackling in the brush that warned them. the cocoanut rolled from the hands of the fish and the boys crouched low together. no sound they made, save the breath in their throats which struggled to be free. couchant, they strained their bodies into an attitude of listening. came again a soft rustling in the thicket. this time nearer. and then—through the long bambusa, they saw the head and throat of a grey hyena.
for a moment they paused while the sweat froze on their brown skins. their lips drew back in a snarl of helpless rage. but the hyena covered the ground with great bounds, and they flung their arms about a tall sapling. their breath burst from them in quick gasps, for they were near spent with running.
but they dug their toes into the rough bark and the strength of the fish enabled him to speedily mount to the forked branches above. but many moments laughing boy clung half-way up the trunk of the tree, with the hyena snapping at his heels. at every leap so near she came, that he curled his feet up under his small body. the teeth of the hyena shone white and her eyes gleamed. a great fear paralyzed him. the fish danced about on the limbs above, chattering wildly, 63till laughing boy gathered breath and courage to continue his way to safety.
there he sat, huddled among the leaves, close to the fish and for a long time they gazed, quivering, at the enemy below. but a caution, wholly new, had come to them, and they scrambled into the branches of a neighboring banyan slowly and with care. thence on through several trees that brought them nearer the homes of the cave dwellers. with much shivering they made their way pausing often to mark the progress of the enemy. she moved as they advanced, persistently, like a hungry dog watching a bone.
slowly and fearfully the boys continued toward the hollow, through the interlocked limbs of the great trees. but the hyena followed. from a bunya-bunya the boys pelted her with cones which she dodged easily. unmoved, she continued to gaze longingly upon them, while the slather dripped from her lips.
at one time the boys almost threw themselves into the coils of a huge green snake, that wound itself around the trunk of a cocoanut palm. they were not expecting new dangers. a quick leap and they swung downward, clinging closely to the bough of a neighboring bunya, and then scrambled up to safety once more. thus they made on, but the distance they had run so joyously a short time before, seemed now to stretch before them without end. sometimes they paused to rest and 64gather breath. at these points they huddled together and whimpered very low, or snarled, jabbering at the enemy, as she sat on her haunches, waiting.
but the glad time came when they saw below the familiar berry bushes. beyond that the arboreal way was not unknown. with a new freedom and ease they flung themselves forward. their leaps grew daring and their feet more sure, till at last they reached the edge of the wood near the hollow.
here they lifted their voices in sharp cries that aroused the cave people from their torpor. soon the stalwart members of the tribe had seized their bone weapons and hurried to the rescue.
at first the hyena did not retreat before them, but darted in and out slashing the cave people with her great fangs. but the fierce stabs of many bone weapons soon sent her fleeing back into the forest. soon quack quack soothed the whimpering of laughing boy, holding him close to her breast.
the nut seasons came and the nut seasons passed away and laughing boy grew tall and strong. though his deeds were brave and his arm was long, he hunted with the tribe, for he had learned the wisdom of the cave dwellers. he knew that it was not safe for a man or a woman to fight alone. the least of the forest enemies was able to destroy them. strong men had wandered 65into the forest to return no more. but when the tribe went forth great deeds were possible, even the sabre-toothed tiger had been destroyed by the thrusts of many. it was the strength of all the cave people that made safe the lives of every one.
