The Wonder Island Boys | Page 6

other things." Harry was up in an instant.
"Where is the ammunition?"
"It was all in the bottom of the box."
It did not seem at all likely that the pistols or the ammunition could fall
out of the box. It is true other things had fallen along the way, but this
seemed to be such an unlikely occurrence that they could scarcely
credit it.
The provisions were safe, and you may be sure that Angel was not only
petted, but he received a good share of the delicious sweet.
It was now nearing night, and they were fully ten miles from home.
Ten miles is not a long tramp, but to travelers like ours, already weary
with their trudging and with the excitements of the day, it was
concluded to camp in the wagon for the night, and then proceed home
early in the morning. To take the wagon would be an impossibility.
They really learned to love the patient yaks. For fully five months they
had been daily companions, and were now so well trained that some
discouragement was felt at being compelled again to break in others.
They had an ample supply of good material in the herd to pick from,
but it took time and patience to develop such a team as had been lost.
During the entire night one of the trio kept watch, not so much from a
feeling of fear as in the hope the yaks would return during the night;
but they were doomed to disappointment. Morning came, but the yaks
did not, and after gathering together the most useful belongings, and
putting them into convenient bundles for carrying purposes, set out for
home.

The first question taken up by the boys after their return was the
selection of a pair of young steers for the new team; and the work of
making a new pair of yokes was carried forward with energy. They
were in the midst of the planting season which had been interrupted
when the last journey was undertaken.
Hitherto it had been the custom to devote at least one day each week to
hunting, on which occasions they also made trips to such points in the
island as had not been previously visited; and it was also a part of their
duty to examine the woods and the fields to find new specimens of
plants, fruits and flowers; and among the hills and ravines were many
kinds of ore, some of which they had been fortunate enough to find on
their entry to the island.
The metals thus found were utilized, because they had set up a
workshop alongside the sawmill, and in it had a crude lathe adapted to
work in wood or iron. It will thus be seen that each tour was for
prospecting purposes, to supply their needs, as well as to learn what the
island contained.
Each evening it was the habit to have a general discussion concerning
the events of the day, or with reference to matters of moment about the
work to be done on the morrow.
George was much interested in the planting program. "What kinds of
vegetable would it be most advisable to plant in the space we have
prepared?"
"One of the important points to consider in the planting of all crops is
whether the soil is adapted for it. When the United States were first
settled it was a surprising thing that many of the original settlers would
go miles inland, exposed to every sort of danger, to find land, when
there was plenty nearer the seashore or close to civilization. There was
a reason for that which we are only now beginning fully to understand.
Plants have a habit of growing in soil adapted for their needs, and it
would be an interesting study in going over our island to consider the
habits of plants in this respect."

"Is that the reason why different countries have such different kinds of
plants?"
"Yes; plants select their soil, and owing to these habits, every variety of
soil, in every climate, supports its own vegetable tribes. Of the five
thousand flowering plants of central Europe, only three hundred grow
on peaty soils, and those are mainly rushes and sedges. In the native
forests of northern Europe and America, the unlettered explorer hails
with joy the broad-leaved trees glittering in the sun among the pines, as
a symptom of good land, which he knows how to cultivate. The rudest
peasant in Europe knows that wheat and beans seek clay soils; the
northern German knows that rye alone and the potato are best adapted
for the blowing sands of that country; the Chinese peasant, that the
warm sloping banks of light land are fitted for the tea plant, and stiff,
wet, impervious flooded clays