[Illustration: Throwing a spear]
"Strongarm's eye is best!" the others shouted. "His arm is strongest!"
After that a young man cried, "I have flying feet! Who will run with
me?"
"I will!"
"I will!"
And young men ran out and stood beside him, and all the people watched.
The race started. The young men ran lightly, like deer. They skimmed
the ground like swallows. Some of them ran all the way side by side,
and came in together sweating and panting.
The people clapped their hands and said laughing, "They are good cave
men; they can both fight and run away."
By this time the meat was roasted. The women pulled it from the holes
with long sticks, and the people took great pieces in their hands and
ate them, and then took more.
"Mammoth meat is good and juicy," one man said.
"Yes," said another, "but not so tender as horse or reindeer meat."
After eating all they wanted, Thorn and Pineknot and old Hickory's
children and some of the other children went off to play. They played
being grown up; and Thorn fought with the other little hunters and
caught and carried off a wife, and played living with her and their
children in a cave.
The men ate for a long time, but at last they had enough. Then they
began to break up the tusks of the mammoth, and they gave a piece to
each man who had helped to kill the animal.
"To wear on your necklace," they said.
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