away from this knoll by snakes. They did not pursue
me. They were merely basking on flat rocks in the sun. But such was my
inherited fear of them that I fled as fast as if they had been after me.

Then I gnawed bitter bark from young trees. I remember vaguely the
eating of many green nuts, with soft shells and milky kernels. And I
remember most distinctly suffering from a stomach-ache. It may have been
caused by the green nuts, and maybe by the lizards. I do not know. But
I do know that I was fortunate in not being devoured during the several
hours I was knotted up on the ground with the colic.

CHAPTER V

My vision of the scene came abruptly, as I emerged from the forest. I
found myself on the edge of a large clear space. On one side of this
space rose up high bluffs. On the other side was the river. The earth
bank ran steeply down to the water, but here and there, in several
places, where at some time slides of earth had occurred, there were
run-ways. These were the drinking-places of the Folk that lived in the
caves.

And this was the main abiding-place of the Folk that I had chanced upon.
This was, I may say, by stretching the word, the village. My mother and
the Chatterer and I, and a few other simple bodies, were what might be
termed suburban residents. We were part of the horde, though we lived a
distance away from it. It was only a short distance, though it had taken
me, what of my wandering, all of a week to arrive. Had I come directly,
I could have covered the trip in an hour.

But to return. From the edge of the forest I saw the caves in the bluff,
the open space, and the run-ways to the drinking-places. And in the open
space I saw many of the Folk. I had been straying, alone and a child,
for a week. During that time I had seen not one of my kind. I had
lived in terror and desolation. And now, at the sight of my kind, I was
overcome with gladness, and I ran wildly toward them.

Then it was that a strange thing happened. Some one of the Folk saw
me and uttered a warning cry. On the instant, crying out with fear and
panic, the Folk fled away. Leaping and scrambling over the rocks, they
plunged into the mouths of the caves and disappeared...all but one, a
little baby, that had been dropped in the excitement close to the base
of the bluff. He was wailing dolefully. His mother dashed out; he sprang
to meet her and held on tightly as she scrambled back into the cave.

I was all alone. The populous o