Early in the spring the snows began to melt on the mountain tops, many miles above the Hollow, and to run down into little streams that lost themselves in the great river. Day by day the waters of the river arose along its banks. The Cave People gave little heed, for they had much to do at this time, to satisfy their hunger. Only the Old Woman bent her eyes on the whirling waters with fear and dread in her heart. Long before the memory of the other members of the tribe, she recalled a time when the waters had clambered over the river banks and spread many a day’s journey into the deep forests. Many of her 82brothers and her sisters had been swallowed up by the angry waters. The members of her tribe had been scattered and joined new tribes. Since those days, she had always feared the river, when it rose in the spring.
When she warned the Cave People, one and all, they listened to her words, but they knew not what to do. And always the river rose higher and higher and its current grew more swift, tearing away the young saplings that grew low down, and bearing them swiftly away.
But the Cave People had need of great skill these days to satisfy the hunger of the tribe. A new activity seemed born unto them. Eyes grew keen for the tracks of the wild boar and their ears were open for a sound of the foot of the forest enemies.
Sharp eyes everywhere pierced the woods and glanced from the branches of trees, for man and beast had need to be ever alert and watchful to survive the dreary period of the hard seasons. The black bear appeared, thin and dangerous. But the Cave People eluded and outwitted her. Across yawning cracks in the ground or over great hollows, they threw branches of trees. And upon these branches they threw dead fish and smeared the blood of the wild duck.
Through the woods the smell of fresh blood reached the keen nose of the bear and she made her way thither to satisfy the hunger that gnawed 83her continually. But the branches gave way under her great bulk and she fell crashing into the pit below, where the Cave People killed her with their long bone weapons.
It was after one of these great bear feasts, when the Cave People had fed the Fire into a roaring blaze to protect them from the animals that grew over-bold at this season of the year, that the Old Woman renewed her warnings. The waters of the great river continued to climb upward and there remained but a little way before they should overflow the banks.
Then the Old Woman gathered the members of the tribe together and told them the story of her childhood days. The new words of the tribe came stumblingly to her lips, therefore she made known her thoughts chiefly in the gesture language.
First she pointed to the land across the river, waving her wrinkled hands northward. That way lay the home of her birth. Many, many years before—she held up both hands to indicate the time was beyond the power of counting—she had lived with her fathers and mothers, on a river bank. Very small she was in those days. Her head came only to the thigh of a man.
Came a time when the waters of the river crept up over the lands, just as they had begun to steal over the wood north of the Hollow. The people of her tribe had climbed into the great trees, but 84with the coming of every new sun, the waters rose higher and higher. Long the waters continued to climb till they became a great surging flood, creeping through the forest and at last joining the waters of the river that flowed beside the homes of the Cave People. Over all the world there remained no dry land.
And the Old Woman, who was then a child, dwelt for many suns with her fathers and mothers, in the tall trees.
But there came one day a storm, when the waters foamed and whirled and tore up the trunks of the great trees and hurled them into the flood. And the limbs of the tree, on which the Old Woman clung, were beaten and bent in the mighty struggle till at last, she was whipped from the branches and thrown into the waters, as nuts are shaken from the trees.
And the Old Woman was borne away in the swift current. She heard many cries, as the waters threw her about, and some of her people leaped into the flood to save her. But she was beaten about like a leaf in the wind and unable to call to them.
Soon she found herself dashed against the trunk of a tree, and she climbed upon it and clung to it for a long time. Often she grew very weary and slipped back into the waters, but always she clung to the branches of the tree, till, at last, she had been washed ashore. And she made her way 85into the new land till she came, by and by, to the homes of the Cave Dwellers.
Tubers they fed her and the eggs of the wild fowl. And she remained with them and became a member of the tribe.
Never again had the Old Woman beheld the people of her own tribe, save at night when she dreamed on her bed of dry leaves in the deep cave. Sometimes they returned to her then and told her strange things.
Thus the Old Woman told her story and when she was finished a trembling seized her brown body and she gazed long at the swift waters of the river. Of the color of the leaves, touched by the frosts of winter, were her wrinkled hands, with which she pointed toward the river. And the Cave People were seized with fear also, for even as they watched, small rivulets crept over the banks and trickled down into the Hollow.
Heavy rains fell all through the day that followed and the small streams of water that overflowed the banks found their way into all the little hollows, filling them. At night when the Cave Dwellers sought their caves, their hearts were filled with dread.
Quack Quack crouched close to Strong Arm, with her arms about little Laughing Boy. The rumbling and roar of the waters sounded in their ears, as the swollen river tore downward in her course. But, after a time, they fell asleep and forgot 86their terrors, till the cries of their brothers and sisters aroused them toward the morning.
Now the cave in which Strong Arm slept was upon a point above the caves of the other members of the tribe, but when he arose and rolled the great stone from the entrance of the cave, the snarling waters curled about his feet and wet them. And, when he looked into the Hollow, a strange sight met his eyes. For the river had risen in the darkness, covering the face of the world. Every moment the waters surged savagely onward over the land, into the deep woods, as though they meant to devour the whole earth.
At those points where the ground rose higher than the surrounding land, clustered the Cave People, chattering in terror and clinging desperately upon whatsoever their hands found. Very quickly Strong Arm called Quack Quack and Laughing Boy. And he assisted them to mount to the top of the cave, where Laughing Boy whimpered with fear. They heard the voice of the Old Woman, calling shrilly to them, as she pointed towards the branches of the tall trees in the forest, where they might find safety.
And many members of the tribe cast themselves int............