CHAPTER VI
_After Supper_
"Boys," said Jack while supper was in process of consumption, "I'mafraid we've all got to do a little work to-night by moonlight.Fortunately there is a moon, but these thin, fleecy clouds mean snow orI'm mistaken."
"What is the work to be done, Jack," asked Ed. "Why," said Jack, "we'vegot to have some dry broom straw for our beds, and we've got to gatherit to-night. Otherwise it'll all be wet."
"Broom straw" in Virginia means a tall grass of the prairie grass kind,which grows thickly in every open space. In winter it is dry and nothingmakes a sweeter smelling bed.
The boys were tired after their hard day's work, but their enthusiasminstantly outvoted their weariness, for their proceedings had not yetlost the character of a sort of frolic in their minds.
"Besides," said little Tom as the supper drew to an end, "I for one amnot half as tired as I was when we sat down to eat."
"Naturally not," said the Doctor.
"But why is it?" asked Tom. "I don't see how I have got rested so soon."
"You've fired up," replied the Doctor. "Did you ever see an engine thatworked badly for want of steam? Did you ever observe what the engineerdoes in that case?"
"Yes, of course; he sets the stoker to firing up under the boiler. Butwhat has that to do with getting tired and getting rested again? I don'tsee the connection."
"Yet it is clear enough," the Doctor responded. "The human system is amachine. It must have energy or force or whatever you choose to call it,to enable it to do its work. Now an engine gets its energy from the coalor wood burned under its boiler. This human machine derives its energysolely from food put into the stomach. When you are tired it meanssimply that your supply of physical force has run low. When you eat youreplenish the supply, just as firing up does it for the engine."
"But Doctor," said Jack with an accent of puzzled inquiry, "how aboutthose people that are always tired--'born tired' as they say? They eat,but they never get over being tired."
"Dyspeptics, every one of them," replied the Doctor. "It doesn't help anengine to shovel coal into its furnace if the coal doesn't burn. In thesame way it doesn't strengthen a man to eat unless he digests andassimilates his food."
"Well now, if you people have sufficiently assimilated your food andyour ideas," broke in little Tom, "let's get to work."
Some of the boys pulled the grass and piled it in rude shocks. Theothers carried it to the hut and bestowed it in one corner, ready foruse. As they carried on the work the moon slowly went out, and just asthey were finishing it, Jim Chenowith called out:
"There's the snow," and very gently the flakes began descending. "Jackyou're a good weather prophet, and this time it's lucky for us that youare. Otherwise we should have had wet broom straw to sleep on allwinter. By the way, how are we going to arrange our beds?"
"Why, we'll build a platform of small poles along the eastern wall ofour house--the fireplace being on the western side. We'll divide thisplatform into compartments, each to serve as a bed. We'll lay clapboardson the poles to make a smooth surface, and on them we'll pile all thebroom straw we've got. Then we'll wrap ourselves in our blankets andcrawl in. Do you see?"
"Yes, but how about the fellows that must sleep under the Doctor'smuslin window?" asked Harry. "Won't they sleep pretty cold, Doctor?"
"I don't think so," answered the Doctor. "The windows will keep out thecold quite as well as the logs themselves do."
"But how can they? How can two thin sheets of muslin keep cold out orheat in, which I believe is the better way of putting it?" asked Harry.
"They can't," answered the Doctor. "Bring those two sheets of muslintogether and they would let heat out and cold in as freely almost as anopen hole does. It isn't the muslin that keeps the cold out or the heatin--which ever way you choose to put it. It is the imprisoned airbetween the two pieces of muslin. There is hardly anywhere a worseconductor of heat than confined air. That is why in building fire proofstructures in the great cities they use hollow bricks for partitionwalls. No amount of heat on one side can pass through the confined airin the bricks and set fire to anything on the other side of the wall. Inthe contracts for such buildings it is often stipulated that the ownershall be free to build as hot a bonfire as he pleases in any room he mayselect, and if it sets fire to anything in any other room the contractorshall pay a heavy penalty."
"But where did you get your idea of greased muslin windows, Doctor?"asked Jack. "I never heard of it before."
"I got it by reading history," answered the Doctor. "In old Englishtimes nobody but princes could afford to use glass. Its cost was toogreat. And then later, when glass became cheaper, a stupid governmentput a tax on windows, and so men went on using greased cloth instead ofglass in order to get the light of heaven into their habitations withouthaving their substance eaten up by a window tax."
"But why was it 'stupid' as you say for the government to raise revenueby so simple a means as that of taxing windows?" asked Jack.
"Because governments exist for the good of the people governed, and notthe reverse of that. Otherwise no government would have any right toexist at all. A window tax discourages the use of windows. As a resultthe people live in darkness and foul air, which is not good for them.But governments in the old days assumed not that the government existedfor the good of the people, but that the people existed for the good ofthe government. Never until our American Republic was established wasthat notion driven out of the minds of Kings, Princes and greatministers of state. It is one of our country's best services to humankind that it has taught this lesson until now in every part of thecivilized world it is perfectly understood that the government is theservant of the people, not the people the servant of the government."
"Yes, I remember," said Jack, "that when the colonies were resistingBritish oppression, Thomas Jefferson put into an address to George III apointed and not very polite reminder that the King was after all only achosen chief magistrate of the people, appointed by them to do theirservice and promote their happiness. There wasn't much idea of 'thedivine right of kings' in Jefferson's noddle."
"No," responded the Doctor, "nor in Franklin's, or Patrick Henry's orJohn Adams's or James Otis's. Jefferson simply formulated the thought ofall of them when he contended that the British parliament had no moreright to pass laws for the government and taxation of Virginia than theVirginia legislature had to pass laws for the government and taxation ofGreat Britain. But the beauty of the whole thing lies in the fact thatthese great truths, asserted by the Americans in justification of theirrebellion, have been fastened upon the minds of men everywhere, and allcivilized governments have been compelled to accept and submit to them.There are kings and emperors still, but they have completely changedtheir conception of their functions. They have been taught, mainly byAmerican statesmen, that they are nothing more than the servants of thepeople, and that so far from owning the people, the people are theirmasters. But come boys, it's time to get to bed. So turn in at once. I'mon guard for the next hour and a half."