orn.

"Ho, there!" came back from the rock.

"Come here, talking shadow."

"Shadow," was the answer.

"We want to see you," called the boys.

"See you," said the echo.

"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the boys.

"Ho, ho!" laughed the talking shadow.

That evening Pineknot came running to the cave, calling, "O Thorn, I
was coming along on the high rock, and I heard little cries. I crawled
through the bushes and looked over and saw a nest full of young eagles.
They were skinny and had no feathers on their bodies. The nest was
made of sticks; and oh, it was big, and there was a lot of feathers in
it!"

[Illustration: A nest full of young eagles]

Pineknot stopped for breath.

"Go on, go on," said Thorn, "tell more."

"As I looked, a shadow bird went over the rock," said Pineknot; "and
then down dropped the mother eagle with a snake in her claws."

"Oh," cried Thorn, "I wish I had seen it."

"The young eagles held their mouths open," Pineknot went on, "and their
mother fed them with the snake, a little bit at a time. When the snake
was all gone, the mother eagle waved her big wings and flew away. Then
the young ones' heads fell down. They were asleep."

A day or two after that, Thorn came into the cave with an eagle's
feather in his hand. And there were long red cuts and scratches on his
body.

His father looked at him with a scowl.

"Men bring meat from the hunt, not feathers," he said roughly.

The boy looked pitiful; his mother felt sorry for him. She said to
herself, "He has been to see the young eagles. The mother eagle saw
him. He fought her alone with his little stone ax. He will be a great
hunter!"

She looked at him proudly, and put cold water on the little torn body.

"Gr-r-r," growled Strongarm, scowling. "Would you make a baby of the
boy? A fight is good for him. He will learn to make his way."

CHAPTER IV

HOW STRONGARM HUNTED A BEAR AND A LION

In those days Strongarm was busily digging a big hole away out in the
forest. He cut the dirt up with his stone ax, and threw it out with a
clam shell. He had worked now for days, and at last the hole was large
enough. He laid branches over it, and over the branches he hung the
leg of a wild goat.

That night the wild things of the woods came out to hunt for food. A
cave bear came by and smelled the meat. He went to get it and fell
through the branches into the hole beneath.

The next day when Strongarm went to the hole,