Part 20 (1/2)

”What do you mean by 'fruit-house temperature?'” asked Tom.

”Why, don't you know? The houses in which fresh fruits of the summer are preserved for winter use are kept always at a temperature of thirty-three degrees. If the temperature were higher than that, the fruits would ferment and decay. If it were a single degree lower they would freeze--for thirty-two degrees is the freezing point. But at a temperature of thirty-three degrees nothing decays and nothing freezes.

So they keep the fruit houses always at that temperature, and they keep fresh strawberries and peaches and all the rest of the fruits all winter in nearly as good condition as when they were picked.”

”Well, what do they do with a boy,” asked Tom, ”who has worked all night and is mightily sleepy, except let him go to bed, even if it is the usual time for going to work, instead? Good morning, and pleasant dreams to all of you.”

With that Tom rolled himself up in his blanket and lay down upon the clapboard flooring of his bed, taking a stick of wood with him for a pillow. The rest immediately followed his example and in spite of adverse conditions, they were all presently sound asleep.

CHAPTER XXIII

_A Loan Negotiated_

”Zero weather, boys, and below,” called the Doctor, who was first to wake, about four o'clock that afternoon, and who, before waking the others, had gone out to inspect his weather recording instruments. ”The bear hanging here by the door is frozen hard, and so is all the water in the house. So all that want a bath will have to join me in a roll in the snow out there.”

With that he shed the scant clothing that he had on him and, rus.h.i.+ng out, plunged into a snow bank. The rest, determined not to be out-done in robustness, quickly followed him, and after a vigorous rubbing with their coa.r.s.e towels, they felt like entirely new persons.

”How glad our friends will be,” said Tom, ”when they hear that each of us is 'another fellow.'”

”That's an old joke, Tom,” responded Ed.

”Yes, to other people, perhaps, but not to this crew of new people, every one of whom has proclaimed himself 'a new man' after that snow bath.”

”Now, we can accomplish something,” said Jack. ”The rain and natural settling have reduced the depth of snow out there where we're chopping to two or three feet, and in this weather the surface of it will be as hard as ice itself. So we'll all drive nails in our heels to-night, as Tom has done with his, and early to-morrow we'll set to work again with the axes.”

Ed was already broiling some slices of juicy bear beef, and had a big pot of coffee ready for use. As they ate supper, Harry said:

”This bear beef is delicious, of course, but I would give something pretty if I had an ash cake or a pone of bread to go with it. It may be true that a healthy person can live on meat alone for a good while, but it is a good deal more comfortable to have some bread with it.”

”And it is more wholesome, too,” said the Doctor. ”Man was made to eat a mixed diet, and it isn't well for him to live too long on meat without starchy food, or starchy food without meat. I'm going to observe the effects of this exclusively meat diet on all of us very closely.”

”Any how,” said Jack, ”the Indians, when they go on their big hunting trips or on the war-path, used to live on meat alone for weeks and months at a time. So I don't think we'll starve while our bear lasts, and before it is gone we can depend on Tom to provide something else.

Now that the snow is hard, Tom will go prowling about the mountains before many days pa.s.s.”

”Oh, we shan't starve,” said the Doctor. ”But it has been a good many days now since we had any bread, and we are all beginning to feel the need of it. The beans we had with our bear giblet stew were a very imperfect subst.i.tute for bread, and the quart or so of beans that we have left are not to be used at all so long as we keep fairly well. I'm saving them for hospital diet. How the Doctors in the hospitals would laugh at the suggestion of a bean diet in illness! And yet we may have to come to that for lack of any other starchy food.”

”What is it you fear, Doctor?” asked Jack.

”Why, I fear that an exclusive diet of meat may result in some sort of inflammation or other disturbance of the digestive organs. If that happens, even a few beans, boiled without meat, may save a life. At any rate, I am going to keep the beans for such an emergency.”

All this while Tom was taking no part in the conversation. Tom was thinking--”looking straight at things and using common sense.”

Presently, he took his gun and went out to ”take a look at the situation,” he said. On his return, he reported that ”everything is frozen as hard as a brick, and if the moons.h.i.+ners ever intend to attack us, now is their time. We must put out a sentinel at once. As I want to think a little I'll take the first turn, and the rest of you fellows can arrange as you like for the other turns.”

”One thing I want to suggest,” broke in the Doctor. ”The cold is intense. The thermometer is considerably below zero. It will be cruel to keep any boy on guard outside for any prolonged time. So I propose that while this weather lasts we run the guard duty in half hour s.h.i.+fts. That will give each boy half an hour out there in the cold, and two hours and a half in which to sleep and get warm before he has to go on duty again.”

”It's an excellent idea,” said Jack, ”and we'll arrange it so.”