CHAPTER XIX
THE BIG PEACH
Jack soon recovered from his remarkable experience. The terrible plantthat had nearly eaten him alive was a mass of cut-up vegetable matterwhich attracted a swarm of insects. Most of them were ants, but suchlarge ones the boys had never seen before, and the professor said theyexceeded in size anything he had read about. Some of them were as largeas big rats. They bit off large pieces of the fallen plant and carriedthem to holes in the ground which were big enough for Washington to sliphis foot into, and he wore a No. 11 shoe.
But the adventurers felt there were more important things for them tolook at than ants, so they started away again, the professor tellingthem all to be careful and avoid accidents.
It was while they were strolling through a little glade, which they cameupon unexpectedly, that Washington, who was in the lead called out:
"Gracious goodness! It must be Thanksgivin'!"
"Why so?" asked Jack.
"'Cause here's th' remarkablest extraordinary and expansionist of apumpkin that ever I laid eyes on!" the colored man cried.
They all hurried to where Washington had come to a halt. There, on theground in front of him, was a big round object, about the size of ahogshead. It was yellow in color, and was not unlike the goldenvegetable from which mothers make such delicious pies.
"I allers was fond of pumpkins," said Washington, placing his hand onthe thing, which was almost as tall as he was, "but I never thought I'dcome across such a one as this."
The professor and the two boys went closer to the monstrosity. Mr.Henderson passed his hand over it and then, bending closer, smelled ofit.
"That's not a pumpkin!" he exclaimed.
"What is it then?" asked Washington.
"It's a giant peach," the inventor remarked. "Can't you see the fuzz,and smell it? Of course it's a peach."
"Well I'll be horn-swoggled!" cried Washington, leaning against the bigfruit, which easily supported him.
"Hurrah!" cried Jack, drawing his knife from his pocket and opening thelargest blade. "I always did like peaches. Now I can have all I want,"and he drove the steel into the object, cutting off a big slice which hebegan to eat.
"It may be poisonous!" exclaimed Mark.
"Too late now," responded Jack, the juice running down from his mouth."Taste's good, anyhow."
They all watched Jack while he devoured his slice of fruit. Washingtonacted as if he expected his friend to topple over unconscious, but Jackshowed no bad symptoms.
"You'd better all have some," the boy said. "It's the best I evertasted."
Encouraged by Jack's example, Mark thought he, too, would have some ofthe fruit. He opened his knife and was about to take off some of thepeach when suddenly the thing began to roll forward, almost upon him.
"Hi! Stop your shoving!" he exclaimed. "Do you want to have the thingroll over me, Jack?"
"I'm not shoving!" replied Jack.
"Some one is!" Mark went on. He dodged around the far side of theimmense fruit and what he saw made him cry out in astonishment.
Two grasshoppers, each one standing about three feet high, were standingon their hind legs, and with their fore feet were pushing the peachalong the ground. They had been attracted to the fruit by some juicewhich escaped from a bruise on that side, which was the ripest, and,being fond of sweets had, evidently decided to take their find to somesafe place where they could eat it at their leisure. Or perhaps theywanted to provide for their families if grasshoppers have them.
"Did you ever see such monsters?" asked Jack. "They're as big as dogs!"
At the sound of his voice the two grasshoppers, becoming alarmed, ceasedtheir endeavors to roll the peach along, and, assuming a crouchingattitude seemed to be waiting.
"They certainly are remarkable specimens," Mr. Henderson said. "If theother animals are in proportion, and if there are persons in this newworld, we are likely to have a hard time of it."
This time the immense insects concluded the strangers were not to theirliking. With a snapping of their big muscular legs and a whirr of theirwings that was like the starting of an automobile, the grasshoppers roseinto the air and sailed away over the heads of the adventurers. Theirflight was more than an eighth of a mile in extent, and they came downin a patch of the very tall grass.
"Let's go after them!" exclaimed old Andy. "I was so excited I forgot totake a shot at them. Come on!"
"I think we'd better not," counseled the professor. "In the first placewe don't need them. They would be no good for food. Then we don't knowbut what they might attack us, and it would be no joke to be bitten by agrasshopper of that size. Let them alone. We may find other game whichwill need your attention, Andy. Better save your ammunition."
Somewhat against his will, Andy had to submit to the professor's ruling.The old hunter consoled himself with the reflection that if insects grewto that size he would have some excellent sport hunting even the birdsof the inner world.
"I wonder what sort of a tree that peach grew on," Jack remarked, as hecut off another slice, when the excitement caused by the discovery ofthe grasshoppers had subsided. "It must be taller than a church steeple.I wonder how the fruit got here, for there are no trees around."
"I fancy those insects rolled it along for a good distance," Mr.Henderson put in. "You can see the marks on the ground, where theypushed it. They are wonderful creatures."
"Are we going any farther?" asked Mark. "Perhaps we can find the peachtree, and, likely there are other fruit trees near it."
At the professor's suggestion they strolled along for some distance.They were now about three miles from the airship, and found that whatthey had supposed was a rather level plain, was becoming a succession ofhills and hollows. It was while descending into a rather deep valleythat Jack pointed ahead and exclaimed:
"I guess there's our peach orchard, but I never saw one like it before."
Nor had any of the others. Instead of trees the peaches were attached tovines growing along the ground. They covered a large part of the valley,and the peaches, some bigger than the one they first discovered, somesmall and green, rose up amid the vines, just as pumpkins do in a cornfield.
"Stranger and stranger," the professor murmured. "Peaches grow on vines.I suppose potatoes will grow on trees. Everything seems to be reversedhere."
They made their way down toward the peach "orchard" as Jack called it,though "patch" would have been a better name. Besides peaches they foundplums, apples, and pears growing in the same way, and all of a sizeproportionate to the first-named fruit.
"Well, one thing is evident," Mr. Henderson remarked, "we shall notstarve here. There is plenty to eat, even, if we have to turnvegetarians."
"I wonder what time it is getting to be," Jack remarked. "My watch saystwelve o'clock but whether it's noon or midnight I can't tell, with thiscolored light coming and going. I wonder if it ever sets as the sundoes."
"That is something we'll have to get used to," the professor said. "ButI think we had better go back to the ship now. We have many things to doto get it in order again. Besides, I am a little afraid to leave itunguarded so long. No telling but what some strange beast--or persons,for that matter--might injure it."
"I'm going to take back some slices of peaches with me, anyhow," Marksaid, and he and Jack cut off enough to make several meals, while Bill,Tom and Washington took along all they could carry.
As they walked back toward the ship the strange lights seemed to bedying out. At first they hardly noticed this, but as they continued onit became quite gloomy, and an odd sort of gloom it was too, firstgreen, then yellow, then red and then blue.
"I believe whatever serves as a sun down here is setting," the professorobserved. "We must hurry. I don't want to be caught out here afterdark."
They hurried on, the lights dying out more and more, until, as they camein sight of their ship, it was so black they could hardly see.
Mark who was in the
rear turned around, glancing behind him. As he didso he caught sight of a gigantic shadow moving along on top of thenearest hill. The shadow was not unlike that of a man in shape, but ofsuch gigantic stature that Mark knew it could be like no human being hehad ever seen. At the same time it bore a curious resemblance to theweird shadow he had seen slip into the _Mermaid_ that night before theysailed.
"I wonder if it can be the same--the same thing--grown larger, just asthe peach grows larger than those in our world," Mark thought, while ashiver of fear seemed to go over him. "I wonder if that--that thingcould have been on the ship----"
Then the last rays of light died away and there was total darkness.