ver, and, for
that matter, I believe the last. That they would have done so in the
time to come is undoubted; but the migration of the Fire People, and
the consequent migration of the survivors of the Folk, set back our
evolution for centuries.

Indeed, there is no telling how disastrous was to be the outcome of
the Fire People's migration. Personally, I am prone to believe that it
brought about the destruction of the Folk; that we, a branch of lower
life budding toward the human, were nipped short off and perished down
by the roaring surf where the river entered the sea. Of course, in such
an eventuality, I remain to be accounted for; but I outrun my story, and
such accounting will be made before I am done.

CHAPTER XII

I have no idea how long Lop-Ear and I wandered in the land north of
the river. We were like mariners wrecked on a desert isle, so far as
concerned the likelihood of our getting home again. We turned our backs
upon the river, and for weeks and months adventured in that wilderness
where there were no Folk. It is very difficult for me to reconstruct our
journeying, and impossible to do it from day to day. Most of it is hazy
and indistinct, though here and there I have vivid recollections of
things that happened.

Especially do I remember the hunger we endured on the mountains between
Long Lake and Far Lake, and the calf we caught sleeping in the thicket.
Also, there are the Tree People who dwelt in the forest between Long
Lake and the mountains. It was they who chased us into the mountains and
compelled us to travel on to Far Lake.

First, after we left the river, we worked toward the west till we came
to a small stream that flowed through marshlands. Here we turned away
toward the north, skirting the marshes and after several days arriving
at what I have called Long Lake. We spent some time around its upper
end, where we found food in plenty; and then, one day, in the forest,
we ran foul of the Tree People. These creatures were ferocious apes,
nothing more. And yet they were not so different from us. They were more
hairy, it is true; their legs were a trifle more twisted and gnarly,
their eyes a bit smaller, their necks a bit thicker and shorter, and
their nostrils slightly more like orifices in a sunken surface; but they
had no hair on their faces and on the palms of their hands and the
soles of their feet, and they made sounds similar to ours with somewhat
similar meanings. After all, the