He clambered easily up the tree, and wrenched off a limb at least two yards in length; then tumbling back again and passing his wife and child on the main branch, he swung down to where the leaping beast could almost reach him. With a whistling sweep, as the hyena 5 leaped upward, came this huge club crashing against the thick skull. The blow was so strong that the stunned beast fell backward upon the ground; and then down, lightly as any monkey, dropped the cave man. The huge stone ax went crashing into the brain of the brute and 10 that was the end of the incident.

Mother and child leaped down together, and the man and woman went strolling off through the beech glades, the child perched firmly upon her shoulder. This was not a particularly eventful day with them; they were 15 accustomed to such things.

With the keen alertness belonging to their time, they half trotted along the river side. Their ears twitched and turned, now forward now backward, to catch the slightest sound, and their eyes were peering far ahead or looking 20 backward to note what enemies of the wood might be upon the trail.

There came no new alarm, however, and soon the cave was reached, though on the way they stopped to gather up the nuts and berries the woman had found in the 25

afternoon while the babe was lying asleep. The fruitage was held in a great leaf, pulled together at the edges and tied with a strand of tough grass. This food was the woman's contribution to the evening meal. As for the 5 father he had more to offer, as was evident when the cave was reached.

The man and woman crept through the narrow entrance and stood erect in a room in the rocks twenty feet square and perhaps fifteen feet in height. Looking upward one 10 could see a gleam of light from the outer world. The opening through which the light came was the chimney, dug downward with much labor from the level of the land above. Directly underneath the opening was the fireplace, for men had learned thoroughly the use of fire, 15 and had even some fancies as to getting rid of smoke.

There were smoldering embers upon the hearth, embers of the hardest wood, which would preserve a fire for the greatest length of time; for the cave man had neither flint and steel nor matches, and when a fire died out it 20 was a matter of some difficulty to secure a flame again.

On this occasion there was no trouble. The embers were beaten up easily into glowing coals, and the twigs and dead limbs cast upon them soon made a roaring flame. As the cave was lighted, the man pointed laugh25 ingly to the abundance of meat he had secured. It was

food of the finest sort, and in such quantity as to make life in the cave man's dwelling easy for a week at least. It was a hind quarter of a wild horse.

The nuts gathered by the woman were tossed in a heap among the ashes; the live coals were raked upon them, 5 and the popping which followed showed how well they were being roasted.

A sturdy twig sharpened at the end was used by the man in cooking the strips of meat, and very savory were the odors that filled the cave. Even the child mumbled 10 heartily at the delicious meat of the little horse, and, the meal ended, the man and woman lay down to sleep upon a mass of leaves which made their bed, with the child snuggled in warm beside them.

There was silence in the cave, but outside the world 15 was not so still. The night was not always one of silence in the cave man's time. The hours of darkness were those when man was no longer gliding through the forest with ready club or spear, and when the animals, especially the defenseless ones, felt more at ease than in the day- 20 time. The grass-eaters emerged from the forest upon the low plains, and the flesh-eaters began again their hunting. There were nightly tragedies, and it was but a matter of difference in diet, and in the manner of doing away with one life which must be sacrificed to support another.

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And while all this play of life and death went on outside, the man, woman, and child slept soundly in the cave. They were full-fed and warm and safe. No beast of a size greater than that of a lank wolf or sinewy wild cat could 5 enter the cave through the narrow entrance between the heaped-up rocks. And even these creatures would not face what barred the narrow passage, for it was fire. Knots of the hardest wood smoked, flamed, and smoldered, and then flamed again and held the passageway securely. 10 No animal that ever lived, save man, has dared the touch of fire. It was the cave man's guardian.

mammoth: a hairy elephant of enormous size, now extinct. little horses in those early times horses were about the size of foxes. - vantage ground: a better or higher place. - gorilla: an ape of West Africa, larger than a man, and remarkable for its strength.

THE POET'S SONG

ALFRED TENNYSON

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, late poet laureate of England and one of the greatest poets of his age, was born in 1809, and died in 1892. His verse is noted for its perfect form and melody.

The rain had fallen, the Poet arose,

He pass'd by the town and out of the street,
A light wind blew from the gates of the sun,
And waves of shadow went over the wheat,
And he sat him down in a lonely place,
And chanted a melody loud and sweet,
That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,
And the lark drop down at his feet.

The swallow stopped as he hunted the fly,

The snake slipped under a spray,

The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak,

And stared, with his foot on the prey,

And the nightingale thought, "I have sung many songs,

But never a one so gay,

For he sings of what the world will be

When the years have died away."

the gates of the sun that part of the sky where the sun rises or sets. Notice that the sweetest singers of bird land as well as the hunters stop to listen to the poet's song, and that he foretells a time when there shall be no cruelty or bloodshed.