PUBLISHED FOR THE ASSOCIATION BY WILLIAM COLLINS, SONS, & COMPANY, 1866. Price One Shilling. MY SIXTH BOOK. SECTION I. THE SAVAGE AGE. A LONG, long time back, you could not have seen the face of the ground in the land where we now dwell. Great wide woods hid it from the sight of the eye, and wild men dwelt in them. Few of these men had hats, or coats, or shoes; but they put red, black, or blue paint on their bare skins, to make them look more fierce. Some few who dwelt in Kent, and near the south coast, had huts in which they slept at night, but the rest slept where they could, at the roots of trees, or in holes of the rocks. These last found their food in the chase. They had small bows, from which they shot reeds, with tips on them made of flint. They had spears, too, with which they killed the deer, or wild beasts of the wood. They ate their flesh, and with the skins spread over thin bits of wood they made boats to cross the streams with; and the boats were so light that each man could bear his own boat on his back. They were quite wild, and grew more and more so as you went north. |