Part 5 (2/2)
CHAPTER VI
_After Supper_
”Boys,” said Jack while supper was in process of consumption, ”I'm afraid we've all got to do a little work to-night by moonlight.
Fortunately there is a moon, but these thin, fleecy clouds mean snow or I'm mistaken.”
”What is the work to be done, Jack,” asked Ed. ”Why,” said Jack, ”we've got to have some dry broom straw for our beds, and we've got to gather it to-night. Otherwise it'll all be wet.”
”Broom straw” in Virginia means a tall gra.s.s of the prairie gra.s.s kind, which grows thickly in every open s.p.a.ce. In winter it is dry and nothing makes a sweeter smelling bed.
The boys were tired after their hard day's work, but their enthusiasm instantly outvoted their weariness, for their proceedings had not yet lost the character of a sort of frolic in their minds.
”Besides,” said little Tom as the supper drew to an end, ”I for one am not half as tired as I was when we sat down to eat.”
”Naturally not,” said the Doctor.
”But why is it?” asked Tom. ”I don't see how I have got rested so soon.”
”You've fired up,” replied the Doctor. ”Did you ever see an engine that worked badly for want of steam? Did you ever observe what the engineer does in that case?”
”Yes, of course; he sets the stoker to firing up under the boiler. But what has that to do with getting tired and getting rested again? I don't see the connection.”
”Yet it is clear enough,” the Doctor responded. ”The human system is a machine. It must have energy or force or whatever you choose to call it, to enable it to do its work. Now an engine gets its energy from the coal or wood burned under its boiler. This human machine derives its energy solely from food put into the stomach. When you are tired it means simply that your supply of physical force has run low. When you eat you replenish the supply, just as firing up does it for the engine.”
”But Doctor,” said Jack with an accent of puzzled inquiry, ”how about those people that are always tired--'born tired' as they say? They eat, but they never get over being tired.”
”Dyspeptics, every one of them,” replied the Doctor. ”It doesn't help an engine to shovel coal into its furnace if the coal doesn't burn. In the same way it doesn't strengthen a man to eat unless he digests and a.s.similates his food.”
”Well now, if you people have sufficiently a.s.similated your food and your ideas,” broke in little Tom, ”let's get to work.”
Some of the boys pulled the gra.s.s and piled it in rude shocks. The others carried it to the hut and bestowed it in one corner, ready for use. As they carried on the work the moon slowly went out, and just as they were finis.h.i.+ng it, Jim Chenowith called out:
”There's the snow,” and very gently the flakes began descending. ”Jack you're a good weather prophet, and this time it's lucky for us that you are. Otherwise we should have had wet broom straw to sleep on all winter. By the way, how are we going to arrange our beds?”
”Why, we'll build a platform of small poles along the eastern wall of our house--the fireplace being on the western side. We'll divide this platform into compartments, each to serve as a bed. We'll lay clapboards on the poles to make a smooth surface, and on them we'll pile all the broom straw we've got. Then we'll wrap ourselves in our blankets and crawl in. Do you see?”
”Yes, but how about the fellows that must sleep under the Doctor's muslin window?” asked Harry. ”Won't they sleep pretty cold, Doctor?”
”I don't think so,” answered the Doctor. ”The windows will keep out the cold quite as well as the logs themselves do.”
”But how can they? How can two thin sheets of muslin keep cold out or heat in, which I believe is the better way of putting it?” asked Harry.
”They can't,” answered the Doctor. ”Bring those two sheets of muslin together and they would let heat out and cold in as freely almost as an open hole does. It isn't the muslin that keeps the cold out or the heat in--which ever way you choose to put it. It is the imprisoned air between the two pieces of muslin. There is hardly anywhere a worse conductor of heat than confined air. That is why in building fire proof structures in the great cities they use hollow bricks for part.i.tion walls. No amount of heat on one side can pa.s.s through the confined air in the bricks and set fire to anything on the other side of the wall. In the contracts for such buildings it is often stipulated that the owner shall be free to build as hot a bonfire as he pleases in any room he may select, and if it sets fire to anything in any other room the contractor shall pay a heavy penalty.”
”But where did you get your idea of greased muslin windows, Doctor?”
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