The Tree-Dwellers Part 14

Each one hunted for his own food.

Each ate what he found on the spot.

But all came back to the fireplace at night.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "_They talked about the wild animals they had seen_"]

All were tired and needed to rest.

Since they had no chairs they squatted on the ground.

They talked and they played in the firelight.

When they got drowsy they fell asleep.

But Sharptooth kept watch of the fire.

Her sisters helped, but she was the clan mother.

It was she who took charge of the fire.

She knew how the fire became their friend.

She knew that it needed care.

She knew that it gave them their first home.

So she taught the people to worship the fire.

THINGS TO DO

_Play that you are Tree-dwellers just beginning to form a clan._ _Plan how you will divide your work._ _Choose sides and let those on one side tell a story of the Tree-dwellers before they had fire. Let those on the other side tell a story of the Tree-dwellers after they had fire._ _Look at the picture on page 100 and tell such a story about it as you think the tree-dwellers would tell after they had seen such a fight._

XXV.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

How were the Tree-dwellers sheltered from the wind and rain?

How did they keep warm after they used fire?

How did they find shelter from the rain?

What trees offer the best shelter from the rain?

Where is the rain that falls on those trees carried?

Do you know what kind of roots those trees have?

What trees do not give a good shelter from the rain? Why?

What trees would give the best shelter in the winter? Why?

How did the fire clan find shelter from the cold winds?

If they were living in places that were not well sheltered, what kind of a shelter do you think they might make?

_How the Women Made a Shelter_

When people slept in trees, they did not need to make a shelter.

They were sheltered by the trees.

Long after they began to sleep on the ground, the trees still sheltered them.

The leaves of the trees kept off the rain.

The thick underbrush kept off the cold winds.

When the fire clan moved to a new place, it was always Sharptooth who chose the spot for the fire.

She knew the best sheltered places.

Sometimes she chose a spot near an oak or a birch.

Their tops were well thatched with leaves.

They shed rain almost as well as a roof.

But when the oak and the birch trees dropped their leaves, Sharptooth carried her fire to a fir or a spruce.

These evergreen trees had needle-like leaves.

They gave some protection from the rain and the snow.

But sometimes a drizzling rain kept up for many days.

Sometimes the cold winds blew.

Then the fire clan shivered with the wet and the cold.

Mothers were anxious about their children.

They wanted to keep them safe from harm.

So they tried to keep off the cold wind and the rain.

They had not yet learned many ways of working, but they long had known how to weave cradles of vines.

So the women now tried to weave a shelter.

They broke off large armfuls of evergreens.

They carried them to some saplings that grew near the fire.

Then they bent down the tops of the small growing saplings.

They tied them together and began to weave.

They wove branches of evergreens among them.

They piled larger branches against the wall.

At last the shelter was done.

It was the first shelter that they had made.

There was not one like it on the wooded hills.

THINGS TO DO

_Make a playhouse that will shelter you from the wind and the rain._ _Find trees that give a good shelter from the sun and the rain._

[Ill.u.s.tration: "_So the women now tried to weave a shelter_"]

_Notice trees that do not give good shelter. See if you can find out why some trees give a better shelter than others._ _When do oaks and birches drop their leaves?_ _Do evergreen trees ever drop their leaves?_ _Find out why we call them evergreen trees._

XXVI.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What do we use baskets for?

What are they made of?

Do you think that the Tree-dwellers made baskets before they had fire?

When do you think that they would first need baskets?

How do you think that they might have made them?