"At any rate," said Rollo, "we will follow the track a little way, and see what it leads to. Perhaps we shall overtake the boys."
Accordingly Rollo turned along in the track, but Lucy stopped.
"No, Rollo," said she, "we must go the other way if we want to find the boys;-the track is going the other way. But never mind," she added, "I don't want to find the boys; I want to go home; so we will go this way."
Rollo went on, secretly pleased to find the track, for he supposed that by retracing it, as he was doing, it would lead him back home. He had, however, a great curiosity to know who could have made it; and in fact the mystery was soon unraveled.
For, after following the track a short distance, they saw before them a large, dark spot upon the snow, and, on drawing near to it, to see what it was, they found it was the place of their own encampment; and the track which they were following was their own track, leading them back to the mouldering remains of their own fire. They had gone round in a great circle, and come back upon their own course. Rollo looked exceedingly blank and confused at this unexpected termination of the clew, which he had hoped was to have led him out of his difficulty. What he was to do now, he did not know.
The fact, however, that they were lost, was no longer to be concealed; and Lucy proposed that they should go into the woods, where the tops of the trees would act as a sort of umbrella, to keep the snow from falling upon them, and wait there until it stopped snowing; and then the air would be clear, and they could find their way out.
"O," said Rollo, "I can easily make a hut of hemlock branches, and we can go into that for shelter."
"But, Rollo," said Nathan, "how do you know but that it will snow all day? We can't stay in the woods all day."
"No," said Rollo; "when it snows in great flakes, it is not going to snow long. Jonas told me so."
So the children went into the woods, and Rollo began to make his hut; but he was soon interrupted, and the attention of all the children was called off by a little bird, which they saw there, hopping about, and appearing benumbed with cold. After some effort, Rollo succeeded in catching her in his cap.
"We'll carry her home," said Nathan; "we'll carry her home, and show her to mother."
"Yes," said Rollo, "I'll carry her in my cap."
"No," said Lucy, "you must have your cap on your head, or you will take cold. Let me carry her in my hands."
"No," said Rollo, "you will have to lead Nathan. I'll tell you what we will do. We will put her into the basket, for a cage."
Lucy, on the whole, liked this plan, and they accordingly put the bird in the basket, and Rollo contrived to make a cover of boughs, to keep her from getting away.
By the time that this was all arranged, the children found, to their great satisfaction, that it had ceased snowing; and they immediately set out for home. Rollo drew the sled, with the basket and bird upon it, secured as before with the cord; and Lucy led Nathan. They now had no difficulty in finding their way, and soon reached home in safety.
They kept the bird until the next day, and then, as it was mild and pleasant, they let her fly away.
QUESTIONS.
By what process had the snow become hardened at this time? Did
Rollo's father expect that it would continue hard till noon?
Why not? Did it continue hard? What prevented its melting? How
did Rollo get sticks for his fire? What name did he give to the
hill which they ascended? What occasioned the difficulty in the
way of Rollo's finding his way home? What conversation took
place when he found the track? Was this track in the new snow,
or in the old snow? How had it become partly obliterated? How
did they carry the bird home?
CHAPTER II. FLYING.
Nathan became very much interested in the bird, and that evening, as his father was sitting by the fire, with a book in his hand, which he had been reading, Nathan came up to him, and said,-
"Father, are you busy now,-thinking, or anything?"
"No," said his father.
"Because," said Nathan, "if you are not, I want to read you something out of my little book."
So Nathan's father took him up into his lap, and Nathan opened his little book, and began to read as follows:-
"'With fins for the water, and wings for the air,
And feet for the ground, I could go everywhere.'
"Isn't that funny?" said Nathan.
"Rather funny," said his father.
"I wish I had wings," said Nathan.
"Why?" said his father.
"Why, then I could fly."
"That is not certain," said his father. "There are two difficulties which prevent boys from flying. One is, they have no wings; and the other is, they have not strength to use them."
"O father," said Nathan, "I could use them; I am pretty strong. I can wheel Rollo's wheelbarrow."
His father smiled. "Very possibly," said he; "but I do not think that you would be strong enough to use wings, even if you had them."
"Why, at any rate, I am stronger than a bird," said Nathan.
"Yes," said his father, "you have more actual strength than a bird, but not more in proportion to your size. You are absolutely stronger, but not relatively."
"What do you mean by that?" said Nathan.
"Why, you have actually more strength than a bird,-a robin, for instance; you could hold him so that he could not get away; and you could lift more than he could too. But then you are a great deal larger, and you are not as much stronger than he is, as you are larger. If you are a hundred times as heavy as he, you are not a hundred times as strong. That's what I mean by saying that you are absolutely stronger, but not relatively. That is, you are not as many times stronger, as you are larger and heavier. You are absolutely stronger, but not relatively; that is, in proportion to your size and weight.
"Now I can prove to you," continued his father, "that you would not be strong enough to fly with wings, even if you had them. Suppose there was a pole fastened across the room, and another pole just above it; could you pull yourself up, from one pole to the other, by your hands alone, without touching your feet?-Or a ladder," continued his father,-"it will be better to suppose a ladder. Now, if there was a ladder leaning up against a building, could you climb up on the under side by your hands, drawing yourself up, hand over hand, without touching your feet?"
Here Rollo, who was reading in a little chair at the back part of the room, when his father first commenced the conversation with Nathan, but who had been listening for a few minutes past to what his father had been saying, jumped up, and came across the room to his father, and said,-
"Yes, sir, yes, sir; I can. I have done it often in the barn."
"How high up could you go?" said his father.
"O, almost up to the loft," said Rollo. "Only, you see, father, the rounds are too far up. I can't reach up very well. If they were nearer together, I could climb up so, very well."
"Well," said his father, "a bird, when flying, has to climb up in much the same way. He has to pull himself up by the air, with his wings, just as you do with your hands and arms, by the rounds of the ladder; only the air is not fixed, like the ladder, but constantly gives way under his wing; and so, to make the case the same, you must suppose that the ladder is not firm, but is floating in the air, and sinks down with your weight, so that you have to climb up faster than you pull the ladder down. Do you think you would have strength enough in your arms to do that?"
Rollo and Nathan looked very much interested in what their father was saying, but they both admitted that they could not climb up such ladders as those.
"The air," added their father, "gives way continually under the bird's wing; and yet they have to pull themselves up by it. And this is very hard. They must either have very large wings, and prodigious strength to use them, so as to pull upon the air with very hard and heavy strokes, or else, if they have small wings, they must have strength to strike very quick and often with them.