As she gathered a handful
of the pebbles and held them up to look at them she noticed that
one of her fingers was bleeding from a clean, straight cut. She fell
to searching for the cause and presently discovered it in one of
the fragments of volcanic glass which revealed an edge that was
almost razor-like. Jane Clayton was elated. Here, God-given to
her hands, was the first beginning with which she might eventually
arrive at both weapons and tools--a cutting edge. Everything was
possible to him who possessed it--nothing without.
She sought until she had collected many of the precious bits
of stone--until the pouch that hung at her right side was almost
filled. Then she climbed into the great tree to examine them at
leisure. There were some that looked like knife blades, and some
that could easily be fashioned into spear heads, and many smaller
ones that nature seemed to have intended for the tips of savage
arrows.
The spear she would essay first--that would be easiest. There was
a hollow in the bole of the tree in a great crotch high above the
ground. Here she cached all of her treasure except a single knifelike
sliver. With this she descended to the ground and searching out a
slender sapling that grew arrow-straight she hacked and sawed until
she could break it off without splitting the wood.
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