Chapter Three
The mountain had slept quite a while—mountains do that, they just don’t tell you—and when it woke up, there were people living all over it. Some people cut down trees and made places to live. Others cut down trees just to make fire! The mountain knew about fire, because lightning would start them, and they would burn, and burn, and burn. The fires started by the people were smaller, however, and usually did not spread. The big fires made the mountain feel warm, but it could hardly feel the small ones.
The people wore skins of animals they killed, and after eating the animals, they used their bones to make things. The mountain thought it was funny that the people attached small, sharp rocks to the bones, or maybe to pieces of wood. The mountain could send huge boulders down whenever it wanted to, and it could not see that small rocks were very useful.
The people usually went away whenever the animals went away, and the mountain wondered whether the people were following the animals. Sure enough, when the animals came back, there were the people! The mountain was pleased with itself, believing it knew what the people were thinking. It was good to have them there.