the
forests, and fishes of all kinds in the seas, and all sorts of birds and
flying creatures in the air_.

_Besides all these wonderful things in the new, new world, there was
Man_.

_He was quite new too. He didn't know much of anything about the world.
All that he really knew was that there was a world, and that he was in
it, and that there were fierce wild animals in it too, which would kill
him and eat him if he didn't kill them first. And he knew very well
that he was not as swift as the deer, or as big as the elephant, or as
strong as the lion, or as fierce as the tiger, and it seemed to him as
if he hadn't much chance to stay alive at all in a world so full of
terrible creatures who wanted to eat him up_.

_But this Prehistoric Man was very brave, and he could do two things
which none of the other creatures could do--he could laugh and he could
think_.

_One day, he sat down on a rock, and took his head between his hands and
thought and thought, and by and by he lifted up his head and said to his
wife,--for of course he had a wife,--"I have it, my dear. If we are not
as strong as the wild beasts, we must be a great deal more clever_."

_So he got right up off the rock and set about being clever. And so did
his wife. They were so clever that they hid themselves in trees and
rocks where the wild beasts could not find them. And they found out the
secret of fire_.

_The other creatures could not find out the secret of fire to save their
lives, and they were dreadfully afraid of it. Then the Man and his wife
made weapons out of stones, and bones, and they made dishes out of mud,
and though these things weren't a bit like our weapons or our dishes,
they got along very well with them for many years_.

_In the earliest times of all, the Woman hunted and trapped the wild
creatures, and fished, all by herself, but by and by she began to let
the Man do the hunting and bring home the game, while she stayed in the
cave house and kept the hearth-fire bright and took care of the
children. She cooked the food that he brought home, and she made
needles out of bones and sewed skins together for clothes for her
husband and the children and herself. After a long time she began to
plant seeds of the wild things that she found were good to eat, and to
raise food out of the ground_.

_All these things they did, and many more that had never been done
before,--and because they were so much more clever than all the be