Kitabı oku: «The Woodcraft Girls at Camp», sayfa 11
With the last inspiring paragraph the letter ended, only a short phrase of "Yours earnestly," and the signature.
Miss Miller sat for a long time pondering the letter, and read several parts of it again. Then she rose with a sigh of responsibility and locked the communication in her bag.
"Where did Nita go?" asked the Guide, joining the girls.
"Up the ravine," replied Jane.
"Well, the day is clear and I think we can plan to camp out to-night. It will be our first lesson in star-gazing, too!" laughed Miss Miller, hiding her concern over Nita's absence.
"What are we going to do this morning – and this afternoon, too?" asked Zan.
"I believe we will need some vegetables from the garden, and I thought we might learn how to bake cake for dessert."
"Goody! That will be fun! Shall we divide up?" said Hilda.
"No, a short walk to the garden will be good for all; then we can all take a hand in baking the cake."
"I wonder why Nita doesn't want to take part in our fun," ventured Jane, who was being disillusioned very rapidly regarding her admiration for the graceful pretty miss.
"She has never had an opportunity to act as freely and in the open as you have, perhaps. Her home life has cooped her with its conventionalities until she feels lost in this rural life. We must be patient with her and try, by example, to show how undesirable are the frothy perishable things of social butterflies," said Miss Miller.
Nita returned before the Band was quite ready to leave camp for the garden. Her efforts to be agreeable made the girls believe that she was sorry for her ill-humor and would be pleasant thereafter. The Guide saw beneath the veneer of smiles and wondered if the letter dated from the adjoining post-office had anything to do with Nita's present good-nature.
The vegetables selected, Miss Miller said, "Our cake will have to be baked in the oven at the house. I think there will be all the ingredients necessary in the pantry. Zan can show us where the tins are kept, for I thought a jelly cake would be the best to make to-day."
"Oh, yes. I love layer cake!" cried Elena.
The rest signified their anticipation of the cake in various ways, and by the time the house was reached every one was sure the cake would be delicious.
"Oh, pooh! I'm so hot after that garden work! Let's sit under the tree and cool off," suggested Hilda.
"You didn't complain of heat while we were working in the garden," said Miss Miller.
"Just because I didn't feel it then! We were having such fun with the vegetables that I never thought of it!"
"No, isn't it queer? I never feel hot when I am playing tennis or rowing on the lake – but afterwards – my!"
"Then you lead me to believe that when your thought is filled with pleasurable pursuits, such as gardening, tennis, or rowing, the heat is never noticed – it is afterwards, when you are mentally seeking for something to divert your thoughts against, that the suggestion reaches your body, 'My, but I am warm!'"
The girls expressed their interest in individual ways, Hilda finally saying, "Miss Miller, you certainly do a heap of thinking! I never saw anybody who could take us up so quick on anything that could be turned into a lesson!"
"I do not wish you to feel that I am always seeking for a suitable reason to teach a lesson, but some of these opportunities you offer me are too good to lose track of," said the Guide, anxiously looking at each girl.
"Oh, don't worry! We don't mind a bit! In fact, I thoroughly enjoy your ideas – they correspond so exactly with Dad's," replied Zan, getting up from the grass where she had thrown herself.
"Where're you going, Zan?" asked Nita.
"Kitchen! I'm going to get interested and forget how warm the sun tried to fool me into believing!"
The others laughed but got up from the grass and followed Zan.
"Here's the tins, and there's the baking-powder! Maybe it isn't good – it's been here all winter!" said Zan.
Miss Miller examined the can. "It's the best powder made, and if the pantry is dry all winter and spring, there will be no loss of properties in the powder. It pays to use the best products we can get; by that I do not mean the most expensive, for often one pays more for advertised products that are really inferior than for one which is pure but not so costly in marketing the brand."
"Well, you brought eggs, milk, and butter – what else do we need for the cake?" said Nita.
"Flour – I know there is some here, for I left it the first morning we ate here," replied Miss Miller, going to the cupboard.
"And the jelly – Zan can get that," continued the Guide.
Nita was ordered to measure out a cupful of sugar, Elena to grease the jelly tins very thoroughly and spread a small piece of oiled paper on the bottom of each pan. Hilda was started beating two eggs, and Jane rubbing a lump of butter well into the sugar. Nita, having finished her measuring, was called upon to assist the Guide in building a fire in the stove.
Miss Miller reached the conclusion that by having Nita help her more she would keep her in closer personal association with her and this perhaps might benefit the girl.
"First you crumple some paper up loosely and place it in the fire-pit," said Miss Miller, showing Nita how to go about it. "Next, lay some fine kindlings this way and that – if you threw them upon the paper any way they may burn and again they may not; if you build them up so there is a liberal air-space for the smoke and fire to rise toward the chimney, the wood will always take fire readily. Now, the kindlings just right, you can lay a few heavy pieces of split wood on top. That's right, so now we'll light the paper from underneath! Never from the open lid on top."
The other girls left their tasks and watched the lesson in fire-building. Nita said, "Why not – I should think the easiest way would be to drop a match down to the paper while you have the stove-lid off!"
Miss Miller felt well repaid for her trouble by seeing Nita sincerely interested.
"First, the smoke rises and may cause one unpleasant choking or watering eyes. Then, too, the open lid prevents the draft that circulates from chimney down the back of the stove and underneath where ashes accumulate and up against the fire-pit to force a fire higher. If you lean over I will show you the back-damper."
Miss Miller took off the last back lid on the top of the stove and showed the girls a closed damper. By pushing in a small key just over the oven which the girls had never noticed on a stove before, she demonstrated how the little door dropped back and left the current of air and smoke to escape from the fire and rise through the chimney. She also pointed out the wide mouth at the back of the stove that permitted the air from the chimney to go down and find its way into the ash-pit directly under the fire.
"If your ash-pit is filled with ashes the fire never will force any heat into the oven, of top-lids. It may burn slowly, but not until the ashes are removed can you look for any right result in your stove! Lazy house-keepers dislike to take out ashes and keep on heaping coal on top of their fire; that only burns out the enduring qualities in your stove top. A fire that barely reached to the top of the fire-pit is always best, and to keep it at that height you must keep the ashes that are always forming under the fire well raked down until you see a red reflection at the under side of the grate. If you do not quite understand, I can show you later, when the cake is in the oven."
Nita then knelt down before the fire-pit and carefully placed a burning match under the paper. It flared up and in a few seconds, they all heard wood crackling. But smoke backed out of the lids and seemed to be ready to burst the stove-pipe.
"Oh, Miss Miller, what's wrong?" cried Zan, anxiously.
Miss Miller smiled and said, "After my lesson, can't one of you discover the trouble?"
The girls coughed and rubbed their eyes but no one had an idea what to do. Smoke kept pouring forth while they looked about for some clue to the knowledge which the Guide seemed to keep to herself. Finally, they had to give up, and she immediately took hold of a key, similar to the oven damper, that was seen in the stove-pipe, and turned it up vertically. Immediately the smoke was released into the chimney, it stopped coming from the stove.
"Well! what a simple thing to do!" exclaimed Zan.
"Now, if you run out and look up you will see smoke pouring from the kitchen chimney," said the Guide.
"We'll take your word for it – we're anxious to bake the cake," laughed Elena.
More wood was placed on the fire and a few minutes after Miss Miller poured a small quantity of coal on the wood.
"Now it will burn without our watching, and we can go back to the cake. Hilda, measure two teaspoonfuls of baking powder into two cups of sifted flour. Zan, take the spermaceti from the jelly. Wash it off carefully and leave it in the closet to use for waxing our irons when we do our laundry."
"I've often wondered what this thing was on top of the jelly and preserves," said Zan, examining the hardened cake.
"What is that put on for?" asked Elena, while the others watched Zan remove it.
"It keeps the jelly or other preserves from the air. In case of canned or preserved things, air causes fermentation. With jelly, tiny flies settle and eat the top, finally making it sour and unfit to use. This wax is poured on top of the jar while it is in a melted condition; it soon hardens and forms a close sealed top. It does not injure the quality of jelly or wax, so it is waste to throw away the wax when it is serviceable in other ways."
Zan had removed the spermaceti while the Guide spoke, and stood awaiting further orders. "Muzzer always put some flavour in our cakes – we all like vanilla," said she.
"It would be better to eat if we had any, but I forgot to have any extracts sent here," said Miss Miller.
"I'll look in the cupboard, maybe there will be some left over from last year," Zan hastened to say, and ran over to investigate. "Yes, here's half a bottle!"
The flavouring extract was added after eggs and a cup of milk had been stirred together, and, lastly, the flour with powder was mixed in. The batter resulting was just a bit thicker than a self-spreading concoction would be. Miss Miller poured it out into the three pans and the girls spread it over the bottom.
"I can judge the right heat in an oven by thrusting in my hand, but many housekeepers use a thermometer to ascertain the right temperature for baking," said Miss Miller, trying the oven as she spoke.
In a moment she added, "Bring the tins – the oven's ready!"
She opened the oven-door carefully a few times during the ten minutes the cakes were baking, while the girls hung over her shoulders and sniffed delightedly. Then the tins were taken out and the cakes removed to cool before spreading the jelly over each layer. When one layer was placed on top of the other, the cake presented a most tempting look.
"We won't bother to ice this one, as we ought to make a corn-starch pudding for dinner while the stove is hot. And remember, girls, these things all go to help win a coup!" reminded Miss Miller.
While the girls stirred the ingredients for the simple pudding, the Guide asked, "Do you know where starch comes from?"
They looked thoughtful for a time, then Zan said, "I think I have heard, but I never took much notice of it."
"Well, starch is found in potatoes. Of course there are many starchy products but potatoes form the principal supply. We find starch in cereals – in rice, corn and sago. As you can see, the starch we used just now is made of corn. If one uses cold water to dissolve starch, it forms a paste, while hot water forms it into globules that are used to stiffen linen and articles."
The pudding was finished and the Guide thought it a pity to waste such fine heat. So it was decided to cook the vegetables for dinner and save time at camp.
"Prepare to give me a merit!" cried Zan. "I propose that we eat dinner on the lawn for a change!"
All assented, so Zan exclaimed, "Gee, that was easy!"
"Oh, Zan, Zan! You are absolutely hopeless!" sighed the Guide, while all the girls laughed.
"Now what's the matter?" wondered Zan.
"Don't you know? You win a merit one moment and deserve a demerit the next! You are so accustomed to slang that you never realise when you use it!" said Miss Miller.
"Dear me! I suppose I shall be tottering in old age before I ever can outgrow the habit!" sighed Zan.
"Not tottering, Zan, but doddering!" laughed Jane.
While the girls prepared dinner on the lawn Miss Miller was engaged in making an experiment. After dinner she invited the girls to the cool porch to see what she had done.
"Before we return to camp, I am going to show you a very interesting test in chemistry. One that will cause you to wonder how people who know the action of this poison can deliberately imbibe it and consider it worth all of their manhood, womanhood, and honour!"
On the porch the girls found that Miss Miller had visited the doctor's little office where he kept his chemicals and apparatus. A few test tubes and a glass retort stood on the table by the side of some medical bottles.
"I have here a hard-boiled egg. I am not going to eat it, but use it for the experiment that will show you what a mistake it is to put anything in the human stomach that hinders the digestion as thoroughly as alcohol does."
Miss Miller cracked the egg and crumbled a little of the hard white into each of the two test-tubes.
"The powder in this bottle of Dr. Baker's is pepsin; it is made in the stomach and digests what we eat," explained Miss Miller, as she shook the bottle to loosen the powder that clung to the glass sides.
"Now, I am going to add a pinch of pepsin to the contents in these tubes."
The pepsin was added to the egg and then the Guide filled each tube half full with water.
Taking up two other bottles, she held them up to view and said, "One of these contains an acid – hydrochloric acid, and the other holds an acid called lactic. Both help to digest our food."
As she spoke she added a few drops of each to each test-tube and shook the tubes thoroughly.
The girls had been watching everything with deep interest, and Miss Miller continued, "If we leave these tubes alone, after a time the pepsin and acids will digest the egg. Suppose, however, that I add one teaspoonful of brandy or whiskey to one of the tubes and wait to see what action takes place."
While speaking she took up a small vial of whiskey and poured a teaspoonful of it into one tube. Both tubes were then corked up.
"Now, I want you girls to take a look at the temperature of these tubes – they are the same as the temperature of a normal human stomach."
The girls obeyed and Miss Miller then placed the tubes inside a Thermos bottle to keep them at an even temperature until the time required for the digestion to take place.
Miss Miller took charge of the Thermos bottle while the girls took the remainder of the dinner back to the Bluff.
The cake had been placed inside the cupboard and soon Wickee scented it. He immediately took up his station directly in front of the doors and started howling, with an intermittent sniff at the crack in the cupboard door.
"Hey, there, Wick! Dogs' stomachs were not built for cake any more than ours were made to hold alcohol! You can't have any of that cake until we see what effect that stuff has on the egg!" called Zan.
The wise dog looked at his mistress out of the corners of his eyes, and then, creeping away from the cupboard, he quietly left the Bluff and stretched out upon the moss under the willow by the pool.
Miss Miller had gone to her tent to place the Thermos bottle in her box and was just coming out when Nita came from her tent. A pink flush over-spread her face when she saw the Guide so near, and a letter was hastily hidden in the folds of her tunic.
"I was just going down to the mail-box with a note to mother," stuttered Nita, seeing that the letter was seen.
Miss Miller made no reply but walked to the edge of the Bluff with the girl and stood there watching her hurry down the slope. At the lilac bushes that grew near Sherwoods' kitchen door, she saw Nita stop suddenly and look down at the ground. She stooped and picked up a letter – whether it was the one she carried and had dropped accidentally, or another one she had just found, the Guide could not tell.
Nita looked up at the Bluff, saw Miss Miller still watching her, and ran past the house, out of sight.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
STAR GAZING FROM PINE NOB
Half an hour later Nita returned to camp with a face swollen and eyes red from weeping. She said nothing and the girls made no audible comment on her appearance. Miss Miller felt sorry for the girl, for it was apparent that she had experienced a heart-breaking period. But the Guide could not imagine what had caused the trouble – was it that good-for-nothing boy Everton or was Nita home-sick, or possibly, but not probably, she was ashamed of her actions during the past few days.
The girls took an early swim and then packed their kits for the night out. Each had a rubber blanket beside the camp-blanket, so these were rolled about the other items selected for the night.
At the barn, Cheokee was soon hitched up and all the duffle-bags were thrown under the seats. The girls jumped in while Zan fastened the traces and told Wickee he had to run behind, or alongside the surrey.
Pine Nob was high enough to enable one to see for twenty miles around the country, so a magnificent view could be obtained from its summit on a clear day.
"Friends, I'm about to earn another merit. Observe that I do not intend losing it immediately by using slang, so if I seem to run away suddenly after delivering my idea, it is not because of any attraction at the house but merely because I dare not remain where I may be tempted to lose my reward!" laughed Zan, as the others climbed in the surrey.
Every one smiled and waited. "Since our arrival the camera brought by Jane has remained asleep in the living-room. I go to rescue it from idleness!"
With that Zan rushed off toward the house, while Cheokee was started down the road to wait at the side-porch for his mistress. Zan earned the merit that time and Elena made a note to enter the plan of a Camera Club in the Tally Book.
The Band reached Pine Nob without mishap, but the sun was too low to take any good pictures, so it was postponed for the morning.
The fire was made, supper enjoyed and Cheokee fed and left tide to a strong tree for the night. Then Miss Miller advised all to get their beds made before darkness overtook them.
"Oh, aren't we going to sleep on the ground?" asked Hilda.
"There isn't a thing in sight that we could possibly make a bed of!" added Jane, looking about in amazement.
"Oh, yes there is! We are going to win a coup by making beds from wild-material only – and mighty good beds you will find them, too!" said the Guide, smiling at their doubts.
"Twigs, and leaves, and moss?" questioned Nita, ironically.
"No, hardly that, but come with me and you will see," replied the Guide.
Cheokee was tethered to a stump near the camp-site and left to enjoy his supper of oats. Miss Miller then took a trail that had not been noticeable until attention was directed to it. This, she followed into dense woods for half a mile or so, before coming to an aromatic grove. Young trees, as well as half-grown spruce, grew in a thick wall under old pines.
The Guide took her sharp sheath-knife from its case and started to cut only those branches which showed young tender green tips. "While I cut you girls can gather and make bundles of it."
"What for?" wondered Nita.
"You'll soon see, and then to-morrow you will say, 'How can Mrs. Sherwood sleep on feathers when these kind of beds are so cheap and convenient!'"
"Oh, I know! It's for bedding!" cried Elena.
"I bet you've read some of White's books, haven't you?" said Zan, whose brothers were in love with White's wood stories.
"Better not talk so much and work more – darkness will catch up before our beds are made," warned the Guide, cutting without a pause.
Finally, every one was laden with branches, and soon the plateau was reached and Miss Miller sought for a place where the ground was comparatively level. Here she threw the greens.
"Now watch me weave a spring bed," said she, sitting down a sort her branches, long, medium and short pieces.
She laid a row of long pieces of spruce with the tender soft green tips directly away from her. This she made about four feet wide, with the hard ends of the wood facing her. Upon this, lapping about two feet, she laid another row – then another, until the bed was about six feet long. She then placed the next layer on top but turned the ends the opposite way, managing to run the hard wood in and under the first layer. The second layer was laid of shorter branches. The third layer was laid of still shorter ones, without much hard wood to cover. What there was was run under the soft ends of the second layer so that not a bid of wood could be seen or felt. Done, she stood up and admired the bed.
"One of you girls throw yourself down – test it!"
Two or three followed the suggestion at once and each one sighed with blissful anticipation of the night's rest.
"Isn't it soft!" cried Elena.
"And springy!" added Zan.
"I love that piney odour. I always loved balsam pillows!" said Jane, sniffing at the green.
Hilda and Nita said nothing but they remained on the bed when the others got up, thus showing what they thought of it.
Miss Miller assisted the girls in making their beds and when this was done, they wanted to go to sleep.
"But we haven't seen a single star! I thought we were going to take a test in star-gazing!" reminded the Guide.
"Oh, pshaw! What time is it? Isn't it most nine o'clock?" yawned Zan.
"No, it isn't! It's only seven-thirty!" laughed Miss Miller.
"Well, girls, let's go to it!" retorted Zan, where-upon she drew upon her criminal head the laughter of the Band.
"There goes Zan's merit for camera hunting!" shouted Elena.
Zan good-naturedly accepted her doom and turned her face toward the sky to find the first star.
"Hah! there's a star!" cried she, in a short time.
"Where, where? It can't be, it's too light to see stars!" said Elena, who had hoped to be the first to succeed with the stars.
"Yes, I guess Zan is right; I see one, too, but, girls, you have to concentrate on seeking, or you'll miss the faint twinkling," came from the Guide.
After that the quiet was broken by cries, "There's one! I see another!" and so on.
Finally Miss Miller, not wishing to tire the girls the first night of star gazing, asked, "Who wants to go to bed – or who will choose to hunt some planets?"
No one was ready to retire, it seemed, for the new game was too interesting.
"For everyone who finds and names the correct planet and can tell some facts about it, we will award a merit!" suggested Miss Miller.
For some time thereafter, not a sound could be heard except the snoring of Wickee and the soft thud of Cheokee's hoofs as he wandered about the tether.
"I see Venus – right there," cried Hilda, pointing.
The girls turned in the direction pointed out and Miss Miller said, "Yes, that is Venus. Now, can you tell us anything about it?"
"Not much, I'm afraid. But I know that Venus and our earth are often called sister planets, and at Christmas time it is often called the Star of Bethlehem, as it shines so bright at that season. Then, too, I believe it is the brightest star we can see with the naked eye," said Hilda.
"Yes, that much is correct and you have won a merit, but for the benefit of the others I will add that Venus' brightness is caused by the clouds that surround it and reflect the sun's light just as looking-glass would. Our clouds also reflect sunlight. Often we will see masses of cloud banked up, so like snow-mountains and reflecting such brightness that it dazzles us to gaze at them. The thick clouds that surround Venus prevent us, on earth, from seeing any of its continents or oceans that may be there. Sometimes, when a cloud thins out we can peep through and catch a glimpse of the markings of this beautiful planet."
When the Guide concluded, the girls turned their attention to the sky again. Soon after Jane called, "I see a great big star – or rather planet. I suppose it is Jupiter, as I know Jupiter always travels near Venus."
"Yes, Jane is right, too. Now tell us all you know about him. You may gossip freely, for we all like Jupiter and are eager to hear all there is to know about him," said Miss Miller. "But I would correct your word 'travel,' for Jupiter does not travel with Venus; because it is so brilliant we see it with more clarity of vision; Venus also being so bright, we can pick these two out without difficulty. Sometimes the two planets seem quite near each other, which might lead you to think they travel in the same path."
"Well, I know this much correctly, anyway," said Jane. "Jupiter is called the Giant Planet because it is the largest of the sun's family, and is about 1300 times larger than the earth. Then, too, our earth only has one moon while Jupiter has at least eight, and I don't know how many more will be discovered in time."
Jane's manner of ending her description made the other girls laugh, but Miss Miller said, "Did you ever look through a telescope at the sky with its myriads of stars and planets?"
No one had, and the Guide said, "You've all missed a treat. When we go back to the city we will make it one of our Band's treats to visit some institution where there is a telescope. Elena, make a memorandum on your sleeve to enter that in the Tally Book."
Elena giggled, for she was not aware that any one had seen her use her cuff for a memo pad.
"Before we leave Jupiter, I think that I should add that Galileo – the man who first used a telescope, you know – sought for Jupiter one night and discovered the moons travelling around the great planet. Poor Galileo tried to prove to his fellowmen that the earth was not the only world but that it was a mere planet like many others to be seen. Folks in those days believed that the earth was the centre of all things and that the sun naturally travelled around it, as the moon and stars did, also.
"They were so furious with Galileo for trying to tell them the truth that they cast him in prison. When he showed them how the moons of Jupiter travelled around it in an orbit, just as the moon went around the earth, people began to think seriously of his statements. Some said Galileo was a magician and had bewitched his telescope, or else had bewitched his followers. After a time, however, they were forced to admit that he was right, and since then every one reveres the name of Galileo as that of a wonderful astronomer."
"I'd like to find Mars! Please don't any one else take it 'cause I was born under that planet!" said Zan, during the period of silence that followed Miss Miller's talk.
"Oh, no, Zan, you were not born under any planet! You surely have not mentioned such foolish ideas to your father, have you?" cried Miss Miller, surprised at the girl's statement.
"Why, no, I never gave it a thought, except what I heard read from a New York paper. They print horoscopes and tell about governing planets and signs of the zodiac. Is it foolish?"
"I should say it was! I know that a certain newspaper, so-called, makes a circulation-booster of a section devoted to the study called astrology, for silly folks to read and worry over. It seems all wrong to me for any one to waste a thought on such trivial things when profounder studies are right at hand awaiting our choice. It is true that according to certain laws of gravitation and natural law, the tides of the ocean are affected by the moon and planets, and farmers plant crops at certain seasons of the zodiac, but to lay claim to a star or planet having power or intelligence to control our lives and future acts, is to become a necromancer. As you can read in the first Book of the Bible, God made all things and he gave man all dominion over all created things. Man, as His child, was given power and intelligence like unto God, made in His image and likeness, and nowhere in the Bible can you read where He refuted that government and dominion! We still have power over stars and planets, and I, for one, refuse to be domineered by a light, shining millions of miles away from me. What kind of a guardian do you suppose that planet would make?"
"Then why do folks call Mars the Planet of War, and say that it is always a blood-red for a long time before a war or national strife occurs?" asked Zan.
"No one really knows that Mars is more war-like in its office than Venus or Jupiter. But I will not tell you more of Mars until Zan has found him and told us what she knows," said Miss Miller.
"I see Mars – but Zan wants the privilege," said Nita, in a whisper.
"Oh, no, Nita; if you've found him first, you have prior claim. I'll go on star-gazing and find something new!" said Zan.
"Well, it is that fiery planet just over the oak tree," directed Nita. It was correct and she was led to speak of anything she knew of Mars.
"I don't know much beside what I heard in a theatre-play called the Martians. They had a great map on the drop-curtain and I looked at the markings that were supposed to be on the planet. Then I heard once that Mars is a world like ours and has winter and summer. In winter it has vast fields of ice and in summer rivers and dark places that may be green hills and valleys. I guess it has inhabitants, too, but I don't know what scientists think about that."
"Nita is right as far as facts go, but one important item was omitted. Mars has practically no clouds, whereas the earth has an abundance of them. Therefore, it must be continually fine weather on Mars, for there cannot be any rain. Whether any people live to enjoy permanent fair weather, we do not know, because Mars is such a distance away that even with strongest telescopes we can only see different coloured markings on the surface of the planet. I sometimes think that Mars would have to have a wonderful irrigation system to succeed with vegetation if it is inhabited. As it could have no rain, it would have to conserve the melting snows of winter to water its valleys in summer."
