hey waited and waited, but still Hawk-Eye did not come. They began to
get a little frightened, he was gone so long. At last there was a call,
"Hoo, hoo, hoooooo," like the hooting of an owl, and he appeared
crashing through the bushes. He had a rabbit hanging from his shoulder.
Then Firefly played a trick on him.

"We aren't hungry," she said. Hawk-Eye was astonished.

"I thought you were starved by the way you acted," he said.

"We aren't any of us hungry now," said Firetop.

"Did you fill yourselves with carrots?" asked Hawk-Eye.

"Oh, no. We had fresh meat," said Firetop, with his nose in the air.

"Fresh meat?" cried Hawk-Eye.

"What did you kill?" he said to Limberleg.

"Nothing," said Limberleg.

"But I did," shouted Firetop.

He told all about killing the grouse. You should have seen Hawk-Eye
then! He was just as pleased as our fathers are when we get A in
arithmetic!

"I guess you can take care of yourselves," he said, when he had heard
the story. "You don't need me." Then he laughed and made his face look
scared. "Will you let me go with you to the land where the sun rises?"
he said. "I am very small, but I can climb trees! I am afraid to go
alone. I need you to kill bison and mammoths for me to eat!"

Firetop, Firefly, and Limberleg laughed at this until they nearly
choked. Then Firetop wagged his head at his father.

"You shouldn't have followed me," he said. "I shall have to spank you.
But you are too small to send alone to the cave, so I'll have to let you
come with me."

The Cave Twins--by Lucy Fitch Perkins

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE JOURNEY.

One.

All the rest of the day they followed the river, looking for a place
where it was shallow enough for them to cross without serious danger of
drowning. They did not know how to swim. For their supper they had
only the rabbit. They ate it sitting on the bluff, with their backs to
each other so they could watch in every direction for signs of danger.
When the shadow of the bluff grew long across the meadows, Limberleg
said:--

"Darkness will soon be upon us. Where are we going to sleep?"

"We won't sleep in a cave anyway," said Hawk-Eye, "even if we could find
one. We might find the cave bear at home in it. In that case, we
should probably spend the night in his stomach, and I am sure that would
be too crowded to be comfortable."

"We can't spend the night on the ground surely," said Limberleg. "Or we
might wake up in