She worked on
in this way and sewed the skins together.
"Where did you get the needle, mother?" Pineknot asked next, looking at
it closely.
"I made it," said Burr. "When your father brings birds or deer from
the hunt, I sometimes take a little bone from the leg of a deer or the
wing of a bird. This I put in the cave to dry. When it is dry, I rub
it smooth with sandstone. Then I must have a hole in one end to carry
the thread. I take a sharp stone and turn it round and round on the
little bone, pressing down. It is not hard work. In that way I make a
smooth hole in my needle."
[Illustration: A little bone]
[Illustration: Bone needle]
"But when my mother sewed," Burr went on, "she used a little bone to
push the thread through the skins. One day she found a little bone
with a hole in it and took it home. She put her thread through the
hole, wondering how it would do, and began to sew. Soon there was a
crowd of women round her, pointing and saying, 'Oh, oh!' while the
little bone carried the thread."
"It must be fun to sew with a needle," said Pineknot.
Thorn was nearby making bone whistles and marrow scrapers, and soon
Strongarm came up dragging a little tree. He threw down his old
hunting club and said, "It is broken. I will make a new one."
[Illustration: Broken hunting club]
With his stone ax he hacked off the top and roots of the tree; then he
stripped the bark from the small end, and rubbed it with sandstone.
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