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"Baby," the infant orang-outan, had now grown to be a pretty good-sized boy. He would sit at the table and gravely eat with a knife and fork, which he had learned to handle most intelligently. In the various trips which had been made from time to time, the Baby was kept at home, but on more than one occasion he would f... |
Harry found a good use for him later on, and from that time forward Baby knew that a jaunt into the forest meant a trip for him as well. When it came to tree climbing Baby was in his glory. He would swing from branch to branch, and shake the nuts, and the amusing thing was to see him help gather and throw the nuts into... |
George was an adept cook. He was fond of making surprising delicacies, and boy-like, they were always the kind that had honey of some sort in their composition. Without any knowledge of cooking, but knowing, in a general way, that eggs and milk were the principal things used in puddings, it was not long before he was r... |
And talking about eggs! Harry found out about this accomplishment in Baby. In the tall grass beyond the barley fields were flocks of prairie chickens, and during one of the hunting expeditions he found several nests of eggs. They are just as much more delicious than the common egg as the prairie chicken is more delicat... |
George had been planning a surprise for the Professor. In many devious ways he learned his age, and August was the month, so in concert with Harry, planned to treat the Professor with a birthday party, the first real attempt at jollification which had been proposed since they landed. |
"I remember, he said he would be sixty-five years old on the tenth of August." |
"But the trouble is, we don't know when we get to the 10th of the month." |
"The chances are he doesn't know, either. But what difference does a day or two make, anyway?" |
Among the delicacies which George had prepared were 65 little sweet cakes, because they couldn't put that many candles on the big cake, and the boys knew, from experience, that they would have to use candles, or something else to typify the age. |
The "tenth of August" came, and the Professor, in all innocence, proposed a day for hunting. Both boys opposed this, to his surprise. The Professor did not press the matter. As usual, when at home, he was shut up in what they called the laboratory. Even though he should be present in the kitchen he would not be likely ... |
In the meantime Harry had made a bell out of a flat sheet of steel. It was really a gong. When the noon hour arrived and the table had been set ready for the symbolic cake pyramid of little cakes, George ordered the gong to sound, and Harry made such a frightful din with the unexpected noise, that Baby was terribly fri... |
The Professor was out of the laboratory like a shot, and hurried over to the house. At the same time George returned. "Who has taken my cakes?" he cried. "There are less than a dozen left." Baby chattered in the loft. The Professor could not understand the commotion. All he knew was that Baby was swinging along the raf... |
"Hello, and what is all this? Expecting company?" |
"Yes; this is a birthday party." |
"'What is this, a party?' said the professor. 'Yes, a birthday party,' said Harry" |
"That is a good idea. I suppose you have invited all your friends?" |
"Yes; we have invited all we know; just one." |
The Professor did not need to be told any more than this. His eyes filled with tears, the first real thing that the boys ever saw on his part that strongly affected them, and when the Professor, his heart so full that he could not speak, silently looked at them, they forgot the feast, and the cakes, and Baby. They thou... |
Brave Harry was the first to recover. Like a veteran he grasped the Professor by the hand, and wished him many a happy return of the day, and George, though not so demonstrative, joined Harry in this wish and prayer. Just then one of George's cakes fell at his feet. He picked it up and Harry glanced at the Baby. The my... |
No! Baby was not spanked. He came down without any coaxing, with several of the cookies in his hand, and gravely took his place at the table. What a very narrow margin there is between tears and laughter. They roared as though such a thing as tears were unknown. |
When they recovered from their fits of laughter, and attempted to proceed with the feast in some semblance of order, a glance at Baby was sufficient to start them up anew. And here a surprising thing occurred. As before stated, he never had been known to laugh. But now Baby laughed, for the first time. And then the boy... |
"You may say what you please," said the Professor, "but laughter is infectious. How much farther a smile will go than a frown. And this reminds me of a very curious thing in nature. What are called perfumes have been known to carry through the air for ten miles. The odor from the balsam-yielding Humeriads has been perc... |
"Why not?" |
"For the reason that the oxygen of the air destroys the bad odors." |
"I thought of this when we were laughing here so merrily a while ago. Laughter is like a perfume, it goes a long way and does not need a purifying agent; but the harsh and angry word is like the evil smelling substance, which needs to be purified." |
Chapter XI |
The Gruesome Skeleton |
The merry party lingered long over the meal. Roast prairie chicken was the chief dish. The Professor had found lentils, and this, with potatoes, or cassava, formed the principal dish, to say nothing of the sago pudding and the residue of the little cakes which just suited Baby's palate. |
For drink there was plenty of cold water, fresh and sparkling, obtained from a natural spring not far away. The Cataract River furnished a good water, in the sense that it was clear, but it had an unpleasant taste at times, so for all cooking purposes the water used had to be carried from the spring, which was sometime... |
"I wish we could purify the Cataract water, as it would be a great convenience," was George's remark, when they were considering their work and duties. |
"We can easily do that by using the chips of the common oak tree or the charcoal can be used, as I have before stated." |
"It is a curious thing that oak chips will purify it. Does it act in purifying the same way as charcoal?" |
"We used oak bark for the purpose of tanning leather because of the tannic acid it contained. The chips of the wood contain tannic acid as well, and it does the same thing to the impurities in water that boiling does -- namely, it coagulates it. In Egypt, the muddy waters of the Nile are clarified and purified by using... |
"It seems people everywhere had some idea of purifying drinking water." |
"Yes, and through all ages; even the Bible speaks of it." |
"Where?" |
"The Book of Exodus. I think the fifteenth chapter, says: |
"'So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured aga... |
"Our Cataract water, flowing, as it does, largely through forests and past vegetable banks, takes up a large quantity of albuminous matter, which is so great in quantity that the atmosphere, or the oxygen in the air, cannot purify it by the time it reaches us, so that if any astringent matter like oak, or birch, or bee... |
"Isn't all this curious and wonderful to think about?" |
The work of preparing and putting into practical form the primary electric battery was going forward steadily, and at the Professor's suggestion a number of cells were made, which it might be well to describe briefly. |
As the clay was the only available material, each cell had to be made rather heavy and clumsy in appearance, and was baked when completed. Each was ten inches deep and three by six and a half inches within. The electrodes, made of zinc, were each one-half inch thick, six inches wide, and nine inches long. The copper el... |
When all this was completed the cells were filled with sulphuric acid that had been made from the copper ore. It was, of course, much diluted with water, so as not to make it too strong. |
"What is the object in making so many cells?" |
"So as to get the voltage." |
"Does the voltage depend on the number of the cells?" |
"Each cell gives practically two volts, so that if we have 20 cells there will be 40 volts; 30 cells, 60 volts, and so on." |
"But where do the amperes come in?" |
"That depends on the size of the plates forming the battery. Surface is required for amperage, and quantity of plates for voltage." |
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