He waited calmly till the uproar died down.

"Thou hast a wife, Ugh-Gluk," he said, "and for her dost thou
speak. And thou, too, Massuk, a mother also, and for them dost
thou speak. My mother has no one, save me; wherefore I speak. As
I say, though Bok be dead because he hunted over-keenly, it is just
that I, who am his son, and that Ikeega, who is my mother and was
his wife, should have meat in plenty so long as there be meat in
plenty in the tribe. I, Keesh, the son of Bok, have spoken."

He sat down, his ears keenly alert to the flood of protest and
indignation his words had created.

"That a boy should speak in council!" old Ugh-Gluk was mumbling.

"Shall the babes in arms tell us men the things we shall do?"
Massuk demanded in a loud voice. "Am I a man that I should be made
a mock by every child that cries for meat?"

The anger boiled a white heat. They ordered him to bed, threatened
that he should have no meat at all, and promised him sore beatings
for his presumption. Keesh's eyes began to flash, and the blood to
pound darkly under his skin. In the midst of the abuse he sprang
to his feet.

"Hear me, ye men!" he cried. "Never shall I speak in the council
again, never again till the men come to me and say, 'It is well,
Keesh, that thou shouldst speak, it is well and it is our wish.'
Take this now, ye men, for my last word. Bok, my father, was a