CHAPTER VII How Stitcher Saved the Clan from Hunger

Many months passed by and in the Valley of Caves all was going well again. The flood was almost forgotten. Nuts and berries were plenty in the woods and the hunters always came home laden¹. No one thought very much about the time when they had been so hungry and cold and wretched. That is, not many people did. But Stitcher could never forget the days after the great flood when she had wandered about in the hills with little Antelope² in her arms, not knowing which way to go, hungry and weary and in danger. She always shuddered³ when she thought of it, and called her little girl up close to her.

 

She remembered other times, too, when nuts and berries were few and game was scarce. She thought there ought to be some way to get ready for such times so the cave people would not need to suffer so much. So one day when the men brought in great quantities of meat she cut some in strips and hid it in the top of the cave.

 

“I will keep this till the rest of the meat is gone,” said Stitcher. But she told no one what she had done.

 

It was a long time before Stitcher thought of the meat again. Then she only remembered it because she happened to think of that terrible time when she had been so hungry. She reached up in the top of the cave and[35] brought down the strips, and behold⁴! the meat was deliciously smoked and dried by the heat of the fire.

 

“It is good,” she said, and gave some to One Eye to taste.

 

“Yes, it is good,” he said, reaching for more.

 

“After this we will not need to go hungry any more,” said Stitcher, “for when the hunting is good we will save meat.”

 

“How wise and thoughtful you are,” said One Eye.

 

There was something else that Stitcher did not think of for a long time. When she was so far from home, and little Antelope was crying for food, she had found some strange stalks that had grains like tiny brown berries in a sort of husk at their tip. She shook some of these berries out and gave them to Antelope, and ate some herself. They tasted a little like nut meats but were even better.

 

Stitcher had brought some of these grains home in her doe-skin pouch⁵. She carried them to eat on the way, but she did not eat them all up. When she got back to the caves she threw the rest of the berries out on the ground. A few days after that she noticed some particularly bright grass growing where she had thrown the grains. But she did not think that it might have grown from them.

 

The grains had fallen in a sheltered place where the new green blades were not trampled⁶ down. In time the stalks became yellow and dry, and at their tips were more husks filled with smooth brown grains. When Stitcher saw them she cried out in delight.

 

[36]

 

“They are like the berries I scattered⁷ on the ground,” she exclaimed. “I will scatter⁸ these again. I like to see them grow.”

 

So, instead of eating the brown kernels⁹, Stitcher shook them all out of the husks on the ground. This time she watched them, and was careful to see that no one walked upon them. After a long time there were more yellow stalks and more sweet, nutty grains.

 

“Here are a great many berries,” said Stitcher, as she shook them out into a big wooden bowl. “We will eat some of them. But most of them I will scatter again. By and by there will be enough so we can all have some of them to eat.”

 

After that Stitcher had some grain growing near her cave all the time. Many heard of this wonderful new food and came long distances to get some of the kernels. And soon most of the cave people were raising little patches of wheat in the open spaces about their caves.

 

“We will never be hungry again,” said Stitcher.

 

Years after that Stitcher lost all her teeth and could not eat the hard grains. So she put some of them into a hollowed stone and pounded them with another stone till they were soft. In this way the cave people came at last to grind grain for bread. But it was many, many years before they learned how to do that. For a long time they ate it just as it came from the husk.

 

1 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

2 antelope   

n.羚羊；羚羊皮

参考例句：

• Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
• The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。

3 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

5 pouch   

n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件

参考例句：

• He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
• The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。

6 trampled   

踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• He gripped his brother's arm lest he be trampled by the mob. 他紧抓着他兄弟的胳膊，怕他让暴民踩着。
• People were trampled underfoot in the rush for the exit. 有人在拼命涌向出口时被踩在脚下。

7 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

8 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

9 kernels   

谷粒( kernel的名词复数 )； 仁； 核； 要点

参考例句：

• These stones contain kernels. 这些核中有仁。
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。