d
them.
Each night they came home one by one.
Sharptooth still had charge of the fire.
She ate wild roots that grew near.
She cracked nuts that she found in the trees close by.
She ate berries in a neighboring patch.
But she never went far away, and she never stayed away long.
The blueberries were now ripe, so she went to the patch.
How she wished she might stay a long time!
But as soon as she had eaten a few, she hurried home to the fire.
As she scrambled over the fallen trees, she broke off a handful of
bushes.
They were loaded with ripe blueberries.
She carried them home to the children.
She told the women and children about the patch.
They all wanted to go.
So they piled broken branches upon the fire.
Then Sharptooth told one of the women to stay at home and take charge
of the fire.
The women left their babies and little children in charge of this
woman, too.
How disappointed the little children were!
They watched the women and older children until they had passed out of
sight among the trees.
Sharptooth led the way to the patch.
In a few moments they found it.
It was almost blue with berries.
The children ate as fast as they picked.
The women ate, too, for a while.

[Illustration: _The bottom of the basket_]

But they remembered their little ones at home.
So they picked heaping handfuls of berries.
They wanted to carry more berries, so hunted for something to hold
them.
One woman had a rabbit skin.
The other women helped her fill it with berries.
Another woman made a basket of oak leaves.
They filled that with berries.

[Illustration: "_She bent the rushes and tied the ends together_"]

Sharptooth gathered some rushes from a marshy place and tried still
another way.
She sat down upon the grass and began to weave.
The bottom of the basket was soon made.
Then she bent the rushes and tied the ends together.
After that she wove round and round.
When the basket was deep enough she fastened the ends.
Then the basket was done.
It did not have a rim.
Sharptooth did not miss the rim, for this was her first basket.
She called the women and children around her.
They ran up to see what she had made.

[Illustration: "_She wove round and round_"]

Every one wanted to take it.
It did not take long to fill the basket with berries.
Sharptooth took them home to the children.
How glad the li