if I can," he
said.

The children tore up the bank and over the hill to get back to the cave
in time to see him coming. Limberleg was weaving a berry basket out of
strips of bark, when the children came racing into the cave. They were
so excited they couldn't keep still.

"What in the world is the matter with you?" cried Limberleg, at last.
"You've been running to the edge of the bluff and back again ever since
you came in. What are you looking at?"

"At that! at that!" shrieked Firetop, pointing down to the water.

There, coming close to the shore around the bend, was Hawk-Eye in the
very first boat that was ever made--in that part of the world at least.

Limberleg was so astonished that she couldn't speak. She dashed down
the side of the bluff without stopping for the path, and the Twins came
tumbling after her. Of course, Limberleg got there first. She always
did. And when the Twins reached the water's edge, she was already in
the boat with Hawk-Eye. She was certainly a brave woman!

The Cave Twins--by Lucy Fitch Perkins

CHAPTER TEN.

THE VOYAGE.

After Limberleg had had a ride, the Twins took a turn, while their
mother watched them from the shore.

"It's almost more fun than our logs," said Firetop, when he took his
first ride.

They played with the boat and tried all sorts of experiments with it,
and were so happy and excited that it grew dark and the moon came out
before one of them so much as thought of anything to eat.

For days and days after that, Hawk-Eye worked on his boat. He found out
all its tricks. He even found out that he could go in deep water if he
paddled. He found it out first by using his hands for oars. Then he
chopped out a clumsy flat paddle.

All this took him some time, but by midsummer he had become quite expert
with his clumsy craft. He could keep it right side up and make it go
where he wanted it to at any rate.

Sometimes he ventured out into the deep water around the gulls' rocks.
One day he even rowed all round them. He could look down into the water
and see shoals of fish swimming about, but he could not catch them.

When he went back to the cave that day, he said to Limberleg: "I have an
idea. Why can't you weave a kind of net out of leather thongs? I can
fasten it in the water out by the rocks and catch fish in it. The water
gods may like us very much, as you say, but they haven't been throwing
any fish up on land for us since the earthquake, so