CHAPTER XII.
JACK'S DISCOVERY.
The harvest of seeds from which Ned and Jack were to draw theirsupplies, was found in an abandoned field, half a mile from the camp.Here various wild grasses and weeds grew in rank profusion, and hadalready ripened in the sun. Some yielded seeds so small and so few innumber that it was a waste of time to thresh them; others were richer inlarger seeds; while many of the weeds, particularly, gave a profusesupply of seeds almost as large as grains of wheat, but these weremostly worthless.
Ned was the recognized "scientist" of the party, and upon him devolvedthe task and responsibility of determining what kinds of seed to gatherand what to leave. He was familiar with the ordinary plants of thecountry, and knew which of them were poisonous. It remained only todetermine whether or not a seed, known to be harmless, was of any valueas food, and Ned's method of doing this was very simple. He bit the seedto discover what he could about its flavor and general character in thatway; then he split a seed and inspected it. If it seemed to consistprincipally of starch, gluten, and fruity matter, he accepted that kindof seed; if it appeared dry, hard, and black upon the inside, he deemedit unworthy.
Passing the point at which he had gathered seeds on the day before, Nedselected a good spot for a threshing-floor, and said:
"Now, Jack, I'll clear a space here and get ready for threshing; we'llget on faster in that way. You go off out there and gather grasses.Pretty soon I'll join you, and when we get a supply, we'll threshawhile."
With this the boys separated. Ned worked diligently at his clearing, andJack brought in armfuls of grass.
After awhile Ned finished his task and began to wonder what had becameof Jack, who had been absent for a considerable time. He called, butJack did not answer. Thinking nothing of the matter he went on with thework of gathering grass. Still Jack did not return, and after an hourhad passed Ned became positively uneasy. He again called aloud, and Jackanswered, but his voice came from a considerable distance.
Continuing his work Ned waited, and after awhile he heard Jack comingthrough a briar thicket, muttering complaints of some sort with a gooddeal of vigor.
"What's the matter, old fellow?" he asked.
"Matter enough," answered Jack, from the depths of the briar patch inwhich he was completely hidden; "I'm torn to pieces by the briars, andby the time I get to you I shan't have enough skin left on me to servefor patches."
"Nonsense!" said Ned; "shield your face with your arm and break rightthrough. Your clothes are thick and stout."
"Yes," answered Jack, "so they are; but I haven't got them on."
Ned leaped to his feet, for he had been kneeling to arrange the grassfor threshing. He remembered how rapidly he and his companions had beenreduced in their possessions, until now they were boatless, bootless,hatless, and without regular supplies of food; and so when Jack declaredthat he had no clothes on, Ned at once imagined that some new calamityhad befallen him.
"What!" he exclaimed. "No clothes! Why, we'll be naked savages beforeanother week is out."
"I didn't say I had no clothes," answered Jack, still picking his waycarefully through the briars. "I only said I had no clothes on, or atleast none to speak of."
"Well, then, you must be out of your head," answered Ned. "Why don't youput them on?"
"Because I can't till we get to camp," and with that Jack made a finalleap into the open space and stood before his astonished companion. Hepresented a queer appearance. For clothing he had on only his drawersand a thin undershirt. These were torn and stained with blood from manyscratches. Jack's face, too, was a good deal scratched, but there was atriumphant look in his eyes which made Ned forget to look at the briarwounds. Jack's trowsers, tied at bottom and stuffed full of some heavymaterial, sat astride his neck, looking for all the world like thelower half of a very fat boy. His shirt, also well filled, was carriedin one hand, while his coat, made into a bundle and likewise filled, washeld in the other.
"What in the name of common-sense have you been stuffing your clotheswith, Jack?" asked Ned in astonishment.
"Grass seed," answered Jack, throwing his burden on the ground.
"Not much," said Ned; "why it would take both of us a month to gatherand thresh out that quantity."
"I thought you scientific people always recognized one fact as worthmore than any number of 'must be's'; here I have the facts--atrowsers-full, a shirt-full, and a coat-full,--and yet you argue aboutwhat must be and what can't be."
"I admit the trowsers and the shirt and the coat, and I see that theyare full," said Ned; "I only doubt the character of their contents. Idon't believe you could have gathered such a quantity of grass seedwithin so short a time."
"Not of the kind that grows here, but mine are not of that kind."
"Let me look at them," said Ned.
"Not till we get to camp; I can't open the bags without spilling a lot."
"Well, tell me about it then."
"Well, I was gathering grasses over there by those tall trees, when Ihappened to look away toward the south. There I saw, about half a mileaway, what looked like a patch of ripe wheat or oats. There were two orthree acres of it down in a sort of marsh, so I went over there to seewhat it was. I found the little marsh covered thickly with a tall grasssomewhat like oats, and all had gone to seed. The seeds are about thesize of grains of wheat, but rather longer, and each grain, whenthreshed out, is covered with a brown husk that clings closely to thebody of the grain. The seeds themselves are starchy, glutinous, and, ifI am not mistaken, excellent food. It was too far to call you, so I madeup my mind I would thresh some of the grass and bring away what I couldof the result. I filled my shirt, coat, and trowsers, and I should haveused my drawers in the same way if I could have carried any more. As itis, I've a big load."
"I should say so," answered Ned, "and a mighty good load, too, if I'mnot mistaken."
"Why, what do you suppose it is?"
"Grass seed," answered Ned, "of the kind that we call _rice_."
"But how did it come there?" asked Jack. "Does rice grow wild?"
"Yes, sometimes. When a rice field is allowed to stand too long beforecutting, the grain drops out of the heads, of course, and the next yeara fair volunteer crop comes up. In this case, I suppose, the explanationis simple. When the island was abandoned during the war, there wasprobably a growing crop of rice in that little swamp. If so, it went toseed, and not being harvested, the seed fell to the ground, coming upagain the next year only to repeat the process year after year. That'smy explanation at any rate, and the only one I can think of. But come!let's go to camp. It isn't worth while now to fool away time over thisgrass. Now that you have found a rice field, we'll eat rice instead, andsome day soon we'll go there and bring back enough to last us till weleave the island."
Upon their arrival at camp the contents of Jack's clothes proved to be,as Ned had conjectured, rough rice; that is to say, rice from which theouter husks have been removed, leaving only the closely clinging innerhusk on the grain. The amount secured was sufficient to last the boysfor a considerable time, and in the absence of bread, it was a thing ofno little moment to them.
The Wreck of the Red Bird: A Story of the Carolina Coast Page 13