Part 6 (2/2)
”What are they, then?”
”Flies.”
”Well, what is a small fly but a gnat?”
”And what is a gnat but a small fly?” added Charley.
”The two are not at all the same thing,” answered Ned. ”That is a popular mistake. I have heard people say they could stand mosquitoes, but couldn't endure gnats; and yet the mosquito is a gnat, and what these people call gnats are not gnats at all, but simply small flies.”
”What const.i.tutes the exact difference?”
”The shape of the body. All flies are two-winged insects, and gnats are flies in that sense, of course; but gnats are those flies that have long bodies behind their wings, to balance themselves with. Mosquitoes are our best example of them. These sand flies, you see, have very short bodies.”
”Yes, but very long bills, I fancy,” said Charley.
”Well,” said Jack, ”all that is news to me.”
”I suppose it is. Most people think a whale is a fish, too, but for all that it is nothing of the kind. What are you doing, Charley?”
”Tossing up heads or tails for it,” answered Charley, who had left the tent and gone to the large fire.
”Tossing up for what?”
”To determine the method and manner of my death,” answered Charley, with profound gravity. ”If I stay in the hut I shall die of suffocation in the smoke, and if I stay out here the sand flies will kill me. I can't quite make up my mind which death I prefer, so I'm tossing up for it.”
”Good! there's a breeze,” said Ned; ”if it rises it'll relieve you of the necessity of choosing.”
”How? By blowing the smoke away, and so giving the sand flies a fair field?”
”No; by blowing the sand flies away; they can't stand much of a breeze.
It is coming up, too, and we shall get some sleep after all.”
The breeze did indeed rise after a time, but the dawn was almost upon them before the boys really slept again, so severely were their skins irritated by their small enemies.
They had learned a lesson, however, and during the rest of their stay on the island they never neglected to make a smudge in front of the hut before attempting to sleep. It was not often that the sand flies appeared in such numbers as on this night, and hence it was not often necessary to fill the tent too full of smoke for comfort.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BEGINNING AND END OF A VOYAGE.
The first care of the boys the next morning was to dig their well. This was a comparatively trifling task, as they had only to dig four or five feet through soft alluvial soil and sand. Instead of making perpendicular sides to their well, they dug it out in the shape of a bowl, so that they could walk down to the water and dip it up as they needed it.
Having a hut to live in and a well from which to get fresh water, they were now free to begin the sport for which they had come to the island.
They went fis.h.i.+ng first, of course, that being the obvious thing to do, but after a few hours of this the tide became too full, and the fish ceased to bite satisfactorily.
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