Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-04-29

three | have no recollection of Broken
Tooth spending more than one night
with us so the accident must have
happened right away.
II came in the middle of the day. In
the morning we had eaten our fill or
tbe carrots and then. made needless by
plav. we had ventured on TO the big
trees Just beyond. / cannot under
stand how Lop Ear got over his ha-
hituaI caution. but it must have been
the plav. We were having great
time playing tree tag. And such tag.
We leaped ten or fifteen foot gaps as
n matter of course. And a twenty or
TWENTY-FIVE foot deliberate drop clear
down to the ground was nothing to us,
In fact. | am almost afraid to say the
great distances we dropped. AS we
grew older and heavier we found we
had TO be more cautious IN dropping,
but at that age our bodies were all
strings and springs, and we could Go
anything.
Broken Tooth displayed remarkable
| agility in the game He was 1T less
frequently than any Of US, and in the
course Of the game he discovered one
difficult slip" that neither Lop Ear
nor | was able to accomplish. To he
/ truthful, we were afraid to attempt 1t.
( When we were 1T" Broken Tooth
always ran out to the end of lofty
branch in certain tree. From the end
of the branch to the ground it must
| have been seventy feet and nothing in
! tervened to break fall, But about
/ twenty feet lower down and fully IF
teen feet out from the perpendicular
was the thick branch OF another tree.
AS we ran out the limb Broken
Tooth. facing US. would begin teeter-
ing. This naturally impeded our prog
ress, but there was more in the teeter-
! ing than that. He teetered with his
( back to the jump he was to make. Just
( as we nearly reached him he would let
/ her go. The lettering branch was like
a springboard. 1t threw him far out,
backward. as he fell. And as he fell
he turned around sidewise in the air
so as to face the other branch into
which he was falling. This branch
bent far down under the impact and
sometimes there was an omln0uS
cracking, but it never broke. and out
of the leaves was always to be seen
the face of Broken Tooth, grinning tri
I umphantly up at us.
, was 1T" the last time Broken
Tooth tried this. He had gained the
end of the branch and begun his tee
tering. and I was creeping out after
him. when suddenly there came low
warning cry from Lop Ear | looked
down and saw him in the main fork
of the tree crouching close against the
trunk. Instinctively crouched down
upon the thick limb. Broken Tooth
stopped lettering. but the branch
would not stop. and his body cOntin'
ued bobbing up and down with the
rustling leaves.
/ I heard the crackle of q dry twig
4 and. looking down. saw my first Fire
Man. He was creeping steathily along
on the ground and peering up into the
tree. At first thought he was a wild
animal. because he wore around his
waist and over his shoulders a ragged
( piece of bcarskin. And then | saw
/ his hands and feet and more cIearl,
his features. He was very much like
my kind. except that he was less hairy
| and that his feet were less like hands
! than ours. In fact he and his people
rs | was later to know. were far less
hairy than we, though we. in turn,
were equally less hairy than the Tree
People.
1t came to me instantly as l looked
at him. This was the terror of the
northeast, of which the mystery OF
smoke was a token. Yet | was puZ
/. zled. Certainly he was nothing OF
/ which to be afraid. Red Eye or any
Of our strong men would have been
more than match for him. He was
old, too, wizened with age, and the
hair on his face was gray. Also be
limped badly with one leg. There
was no doubt at all that we could out
run him and outclimb him. He could
never catch US; that was certain.
But he carried something in his hand
that | had never seen before. It was g
bow and arrow. But at that time a
bow and arrow had no meaning for
me. How was l to know that deatf
lurked in that bent piece of wood
But LOp Ear knew. He had evidently
seen the Fire People before and knew
something Of their ways. The Fire
Man peered up at him and circiet
around the tree. And around the mair
trunk above the fork Lop Ear circled
too, keeping always the trunk between
himself and the Fire Man.
The latter abruptly reversed his cir
cling. Lop Ear, caught unawares
also hastily reversed, but did not wiz
the protection Of the trunk until afteI
the Fire Man had twanged the bow
l saw the arrow leap up, miss Lop Ear
glance against limb and fall back t.
the ground. / danced up and down OF
my lofty perch with delight 1t was
game, The Fire Man was THROWN.
things at Lop Ear as we sometime.
threw things at one another.
The game continued a little longer
but Lop Ear did not expose himself
second time. Then the Fire Man CAV,
it up. l leaned far out over my hori
zontal limb and chartered down a
him. | wanted to play. | wanted t
have him try to hit me with the thing
tie saw me, but ignored me, turning
his ton Ia l.