Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-04-12


the time they were occupied with hold
ing our squirming captives. Once we
tried to walk on the ground, but were
freed by a miserable hyena, who fol-
I lowed along underneath. He was a
| wise hyena.
Y Lop Ear got an idea. He remem-
bered how we tied up bundles of leaves
J to carry home for beds. Breaking off
some tough vines, he tied his puppy's
/ legs together and then, with another
piece of vine passed around his neck,
lslung the puppy on his back. This left
\ him with hands and feet free to climb.
\ He was jubilant and did not wait for
me to finish tying my puppy's legs, but
I started on. There was one difficulty,
however. The puppy wouldn't stay
slung on Iop Ears back. 1t swung
around to the side and then on in
front It's teeth were not tied, and the
next thing it did was to sink its teeth
+ into LOp Ears soft and unprotected
! stomach. He let out a scream. nearly
+ fell and clutched a branch violently
with both hands to save himself. The
vine around his neck broke, and the
puppy, its four legs still tied, dropped
to the ground The hyena proceeded
to dine.
Lop Ear was Disguised and angry.
T He abused the hyena and then went
off alone through the trees. l had no
reason that knew for wanting to car
ry the puppy to the cave except that
wanted to, and l stayed by my task.
made the work a great deal easier by
celebrating on LOp Ears idea. Not
only did l tie the puppy's legs, but 1
+ thrust a stick through his jaws and
tied them together securely.
/ At last l got the puppy home. i'm
agine 1 had more pertinacity than the
+ average folk, or else 1 should not have
I succeeded. They laughed at me when
they saw me Juggling the puppy up to
my high little cave, but did not mind.
Success crowned my efforts, and there
/ was the puppy. He was a plaything
such as none of the folk possessed.
He learned rapidly. When l played
with him and he bit me ] boxed his
ears, and then he did not try again to
bite for long time.
l was quite taken up with him. He
was something new, and it was a
characteristic of the folk to like new
things. When l saw that he refused
fruits and vegetables, l caught birds
for him and squirrels and young rab-
bits. eve folk were meat eaters as
well as vegetarianS, and we were
adept at catching small game) The
puppy ate the meat and thrived. AS
well as l can estimate, l must have
had him over q week. And then, COM
ing back to the cave one day with a
nestful of young Matched pheasants,
found Lop Ear had killed the puppy
and was just beginning to eat him. /
sprang for Lop Ear-the cave was
small-and we went at it tooth and
nail.
And thus, in a fight, ended one of
4 the earliest attempts to domesticate
the dog. We pulled hair out in hand
/ fuls and scratched and bit and gouged.
Then we sulked and made up. After
that we ate the puppy. Raw? Yes.
\ We had not yet discovered fire. Our
1 evolution into cooking animals lay in
the tight rolled scroll of the future.
Red Eye was an atavism. He was
the great discordant element in our
horde. He was more primitive than
any of us. He did not belong with us,
yet we were still so primitive our
selves that we were incapable of a
4 cooperative effort strong enough to
I kill him or cast him out. Rude as was
our social organization, he was, never
1 theless. too rude to live in it. He
i tended always to destroy the horde
/ by his unsocial acts. He was really
/ a reVersion to an earlier type, and his
place was with the Tree People rath-
er than with us who were in the proc
4 eSS of becoming men.
He was a monster Of cruelty, which
/ is saying a great deal in that day. He
/ beat his wives-nOt that he ever had
more than one wife at a time, but tnat
he was married many times. 1t was
/ impossible for any woman to live with
] him, and vet they did live with him,
out of compulsion. There was no gain
i saying him. No man was strong
enough to stand against him.
Often do / have visions Of the quiet
hour before the twilight. From drink
\ ing place and carrot patch and berry
swamp the folk are trooping into the
open space before the caves. They
dare linger no later than this, for the
dreadful darkness is approaching, in
which the world is given over to the
carnage Of the hunting animals, while
the forerunners of man hide trembling
ly in their holes.
There yet remain to us a few min
utes before we climb to our caves. We
are tired from the PLAY of the day. and