e was scared at the darkness.

"How loud her voice sounds in there," said Thorn.

"What is the rest of the cave like, father?" asked Pineknot. "Is it
very big?"

"Yes, it goes far back into the hill," said Strongarm. "I have never
been to the end of it, myself."

"Show it to us, father," said Thorn; and he ran to get a burning knot.

Strongarm took the torch and led the way into the next room. He held
the torch up high. The light looked small and dim in the darkness of
the big room. They went on and came to room after room and to long
halls. Some places were narrow and low, so that they had to crawl on
hands and knees to get through; and all the walls and floors were wet
and slippery.

Everywhere in the cave the limestone showed beautiful rough layers. In
all the rooms long pointed rocks hung from the roof or stood up from
the floor. Water dripped from each pointed rock above, and fell on the
pointed rock just beneath. In many places two pointed rocks touched
each other and formed a great, rough, beautiful pillar. In some of the
rooms the walls and pillars were lovely and white, glistening in the
torch light.

The boys looked at all these things in wonder.

When at last they had come back to their own room, Pineknot asked,
"Father, what is the water that we heard trickling in the cave?"

"It is a stream. It used to come down through that hole," said
Strongarm, pointing to the smoke-hole. "But afterwards it went down
another way."

He sat thinking for a while. Then he said, "When I fought with the
other young hunters and carried off your mother, I wanted a cave to
bring her to. I came to look at this one. Bears were living here
then. But one evening while they were all away, I came in and made a
fire at the door."

Strongarm laughed long and loud, and the rest laughed to hear him.

"Since then the cave has been mine," he went on. "Well, you should
have seen the floor! It was covered with old bones that the bears had
brought in to gnaw. I threw them all out and broke off the rocks that
stood up from the floor. That gave more room. Then I brought your
mother here."

"It has made us a good safe home," said Burr, nodding her head.

After a while Thorn jumped up and said, "I want some honey."

He took a burning stick from the fire and ran out. He walked through
the forest and looked and listened. At last he saw bees go into a hole
in a hollow tree.

"Here is my bee tree!" he cried,