le desire.) Red-Eye, too,
when he investigated the ice, looked bleak and plaintive, and stared
across the river into the northeast, as though in some way he connected
the Fire People with this latest happening.

But we found ice only on that one morning, and that was the coldest
winter we experienced. I have no memory of other winters when it was so
cold. I have often thought that that cold winter was a fore-runner of
the countless cold winters to come, as the ice-sheet from farther north
crept down over the face of the land. But we never saw that ice-sheet.
Many generations must have passed away before the descendants of the
horde migrated south, or remained and adapted themselves to the changed
conditions.

Life was hit or miss and happy-go-lucky with us. Little was ever
planned, and less was executed. We ate when we were hungry, drank when
we were thirsty, avoided our carnivorous enemies, took shelter in the
caves at night, and for the rest just sort of played along through life.

We were very curious, easily amused, and full of tricks and pranks.
There was no seriousness about us, except when we were in danger or were
angry, in which cases the one was quickly forgotten and the other as
quickly got over.

We were inconsecutive, illogical, and inconsequential. We had no
steadfastness of purpose, and it was here that the Fire People were
ahead of us. They possessed all these things of which we possessed so
little. Occasionally, however, especially in the realm of the emotions,
we were capable of long-cherished purpose. The faithfulness of the
monogamic couples I have referred to may be explained as a matter of
habit; but my long desire for the Swift One cannot be so explained, any
more than can be explained the undying enmity between me and Red-Eye.

But it was our inconsequentiality and stupidity that especially
distresses me when I look back upon that life in the long ago. Once I
found a broken gourd which happened to lie right side up and which had
been filled with the rain. The water was sweet, and I drank it. I even
took the gourd down to the stream and filled it with more water, some of
which I drank and some of which I poured over Lop-Ear. And then I threw
the gourd away. It never entered my head to fill the gourd with water
and carry it into my cave. Yet often I was thirsty at night, especially
after eating wild onions and watercress, and no one ever dared leave the
caves at night for a drink.

Another t