en they saw her, the
Twins were very much embarrassed. They thought perhaps they had better
stay off shore a while.

They reached their feet down and dug their toes in the sand, but the
tide was still coming in, and in spite of all they could do, it lifted
them up and carried them right to where Limberleg stood. She looked at
them very sternly. She had a switch in her hand. She said: "I told you
what would happen! I shall have to punish you, but it hurts me worse
than it hurts you." I suppose that was the first time any parent ever
said that. Then she began to use the switch on their bare legs.

Perhaps you never have been switched on your wet bare legs, so I'll
explain that it hurts. Firetop and Firefly didn't understand how it
could hurt her more than it did them. However, they didn't say so.
They just ran for the cave as fast as they could go. But I have already
told you that Limberleg could run faster than anybody and she kept right
up with them all the way.

When they were in the cave again, any one passing by would certainly
have thought from the sounds that a pack of wildcats lived there. At
last Limberleg said to them, "Now, you see, I will be minded," and then
she made them sit still in the corner of the cave until she had finished
the wooden frame and stretched the deer-skin over it.

I suppose that if she had been a reasonable and kind mother she would
have let them go on and get drowned or eaten up by a shark. But she
wasn't, and so they weren't, or else you can very well see that this
story would have had to end right here.

When Hawk-Eye came home that afternoon with two live rabbits which he
had snared, the Twins were so delighted with them that they forgot all
about their troubles of the morning.

"Can't we keep the rabbits alive?" they begged.

"How can you keep them?" said Hawk-Eye. "They'll run away."

"We can tie them by their legs," said Firetop.

"We can cut sticks and drive them down in the ground, and keep the
rabbits inside the sticks," cried Firefly.

"What will you cut them with?" asked Hawk-Eye.

"With your stone axe," Firefly answered as quick as a wink.

Hawk-Eye looked very solemn. "Will you be sure to bring it back to the
cave, if I let you take my axe?" he said.

"Of course," cried the Twins. They took the axe at once and rushed out
to begin the fence of sticks, while Hawk-Eye tied the rabbits by their
hind legs to a little tree near the cave.

When they