down the beach are really trunks of dead trees that
floated down the river from the Wet Wild Woods on the other bank. The
Man and the Woman used to drag them out and dry them and cut them up for
firewood. I haven't drawn the horse-hide curtain at the mouth of the
Cave, because the Woman has just taken it down to be cleaned. All those
little smudges on the sand between the Cave and the river are the marks
of the Woman's feet and the Man's feet.

The Man and the Woman are both inside the Cave eating their dinner. They
went to another cosier Cave when the Baby came, because the Baby used to
crawl down to the river and fall in, and the Dog had to pull him out.]

When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the dried
horse-skin with his nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of the roast
mutton, and the Woman, looking at the blade-bone, heard him, and
laughed, and said, 'Here comes the first. Wild Thing out of the Wild
Woods, what do you want?'

Wild Dog said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, what is this that
smells so good in the Wild Woods?'

Then the Woman picked up a roasted mutton-bone and threw it to Wild Dog,
and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, taste and try.' Wild Dog
gnawed the bone, and it was more delicious than anything he had ever
tasted, and he said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.'

The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt
through the day and guard this Cave at night, and I will give you as
many roast bones as you need.'

'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. This is a very wise Woman, but she is not
so wise as I am.'

Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid his head on the Woman's lap,
and said, 'O my Friend and Wife of my Friend, I will help your Man to
hunt through the day, and at night I will guard your Cave.'

'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. 'That is a very foolish Dog.' And he went
back through the Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail, and walking by his
wild lone. But he never told anybody.

When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the
Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend,
because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him
with you when you go hunting.'

Next night the Woman cut great green armfuls of fresh grass from the
water-meadows, and dried it before the fire, so that it smelt like
new-mown hay, and she sat at the mouth of the Cave and plaited a ha