Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-05

@SS8 WZ9 the Stream-bed was higher by
IN 9R2 tall mans height than now, and
@9RsSasa@SSgY who cringed to his grandson for
SDTSS.H.92SS III strips of skin and gristle, and
S@>S s7s' WV whmpered like a sick woman if
the children shook stick at him, had no reCollec
ton of such another. That was after the third
snowfall Before the last they broke his head with
a club and had meat for day.
For weeks it showed and froze, and showed again,
until the drifts in the hollow places might
a sunken stag even to the points of the anters and
a dry wind as sharp an iciCle, blew between the
stark cliffs and down the frozen river, where
every boulder, gripped fast in the thick ice was
sheathed on the wndward side in sleet. The stored
bark and branches gave out, and there were no fires
in the shallow black dens where men, women, dogs
and children drew closer and closer for a little
warmth; and as the snow whrled past the cave
mouths, or the bitter wind of the black fross bit
them to the bone, and animals, shvering side
to side, stared out with the same dumb, hopeless
misery in their eyes.
Then famine came The white world seemed
empty of all life, save for the wolves, who howled
their hunger to the arch of the blue-black nights
and to the stars sparkling like steel above the frost
Their tracks were everywhere; and mad for food,
they dragged children from the threshold of the
caves, and killed a woman who was breaking the
river ice to reach water.
Day after day the hunters, coming in at the fall
of the swift twilight with sunken stomaChs and
empty hands, had stories Of wolves moving in great
companies across the open land, and of lifeess
forests where there no faintest stir or rustic
among the branches heavy with piled snow, and on
the white floor beneath no print of a birds claw or
footmark of anything that runs, but only the rings
of pitted water drOppingS about each trunk
The hunger grew and grew They gnawed the
undressed hides that spread between their
sleep and the bare rock, and when one of the dogs
Uttered there was mad fight for the blind puppies.
The stockings and the toddling children died first,
following each other swiftly and after them the
weaker women.
And through all this bitter season the Strong Man
-gaunt as a starved lion-kept life in himself and
in the Red-haired Woman 1t was he who, with
the instinct of a famished animal, came straight
upon the killed cattle whose carcasses lay out
the upland above the river and the herd-keepers
palisades. Three out of four were clean skeletons,
the leg bones scattered here and there they had
been left; but one had still some meat Cleaving to
the skull, and a little on the undermost side. The
Strong Man ahead, but he did not stop to gorge
himself though the clamor of his stomach set him
savering. One cannot run on filled belly. The
race back was desperate, and they threw javelins
after him, but from the platform before his he
drove them down with stones.
He did not secrete the leaving from the Red
haired Woman, but gave her what was left after his
full meal Before the first snowfall she had been
splendid the lioness she had killed. straight and
hard-musced as a man. He orded over her as
lion lords over his mate and she would soon be the
mother of his child The Strong Man was not
conscious that he thought all this but he gave her
the eavings of his meal.
1t was the fourth hour after midnight, and too
cold for sleep. The Strong Man. his chin dropped
upon his knees crouched on the hide of calf reived
from the herd-keepers. 1t was black in the cave,