"Run!"

The goat ran; the baby laughed; Pineknot danced and clapped his hands.
All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs. The baby fell off,
and rolled over and over on the ground. She cried out, though she was
not hurt. And the boys laughed and shouted till the woods rang.

[Illustration: All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs]

After a while Pineknot thought of the goat; he had not tied her.

"Where is the little goat? Oh, there she is up among the rocks. She
did not run away, Thorn."

"No," said Thorn, "she will not run away now, for we pet her and give
her things to eat. Mother feeds her, too."

"Oh, but she was a wild one when father brought her home," said
Pineknot. "Father killed the mother goat and caught the young one
alive. He said that he would keep her at the cave. Then some day when
he had killed nothing on the hunt, and we were hungry, he would kill
the goat."

"We will ask father not to kill her, but let us keep her for a pet,"
said Thorn.

As the boys were talking, from far away through the forest came a big,
merry song:

"The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!
The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!"

"It is father coming from the hunt," said Thorn, jumping to his feet.

"He is bringing wild horse meat. Good, good!" cried Pineknot.

Thorn threw the baby on his back, and together the boys ran into the
forest to meet their father.

The forest--oh, it was beautiful! The trunks of the old trees were big
and rough and mossy. And there were tall ferns and gray rocks and
little brooks, and there was a sweet smell of rotting leaves.

"The wild horse ran very fast,
But I ran faster!"

still sang the young hunter, shaking his red hair gaily. He was not
tall, but his legs were big, for he ran after the wild horse and deer
and ox. And his arms were big, because he threw a great spear and a
stone ax. His name was Strongarm.

[Illustration: Strongarm]

The boys came running up to their father. They pointed to the meat on
his shoulder, and laughed and shouted and clapped their hands.

"We shall not go hungry to-day!
We shall not go hungry to-day!"

they sang as they danced along.

"Ho, ho, ho!" sang Strongarm to his wife, as he went into the cave. He
threw the horse meat upon the floor with a loud laugh, and lay down on
a bear skin to rest.

The cave was a big room with a high roof. The floor was of dirt and
very ha