[Illustration: The boys listened in wonder]

After a time Thorn said, "We have always had fire in the cave. All the
cave folks have it. They did not bring it from stones. Where did they
get it?"

"Once, in the old days," Strongarm said, and turned to the boy, "a man
saw fire come out of the sky and begin to eat up the woods! He could
feel the fire from where he stood. It made him warm, and he liked it.
But he was afraid to take any, for he thought the fire man might be
angry. But at last he did take some. He kept it, and grew to like it
more and more. With it burning beside him, the night was not so dark,
and he was not afraid; for the hungry wolf and tiger turned away--teeth
and claws could not fight fire!

"The other men saw that it was good to have fire; so, in time, they
took some of it. And ever since then every man has tried to keep his
fire burning."

"It is better for us cave folks since fire came," Burr then said,
nodding to the boys. "Why, before it came, there was no cooked meat,
nor were there any sweet roasted seeds or roots. But the folks tore
their meat from the animal where it was killed, and stood by and ate it
raw.

"Nor was there a home before fire came. My grandmother told me that,
long ago, in the old days, the men and women wandered from place to
place with their little children. And the women hunted and fished and
fought beside the men. And at night the people curled themselves round