HOW TO HAVE A "LONG HEAD."
Two hours steady walking, over logs and brush, through canebrakes,
across a creek, and through a tangle of vines, brought the party to
the leaning pine tree. From that point the old sycamore tree looked
not at all as it did from the point of starting. The boys had taken
pains to watch its changes of appearance, however, and were able to
point it out with certainty to Sam.
"But what's the good of knowing it now?" asked Sid Russell, "we aint a
goin' back that way agin'."
"No," said Sam, "but it is necessary to know it, nevertheless. How
would you know which way to go without it, Sid?"
"Well, I'd pick out another tree ahead an' walk towards it."
"Well, but how would you know what tree to select?"
"Why I'd take one in a line with the pine."
"Well, every tree is in a line with the pine. It depends on where you
stand to take sight."
"That's so; but how's the old sycamore to help us?"
"By giving us a point to take sight from. Let me show you. Our proper
course of march is in the direction of a line drawn from the sycamore
to this pine tree. What we want to do is to prolong that line, and
find some tree further on that stands in it. If I stand on the line,
between the sycamore and the pine and turn my face toward the pine,
I'll be looking in exactly the right direction, and can pick out the
right tree to march to, by sighting on the pine. The trouble is to get
in the right place to take sight from. To do that I must find the line
between the sycamore and the pine. Now you go over there beyond the
pine, and take sight on it at the sycamore till you get the two trees
in a line with you. Then I'll stand over here, between the two object
trees, and move to the right or left as you tell me to do, till you
find that I am exactly in the line between them. Then I can pick out
the right tree ahead."
Sid did as he was told, the boys all looking on with great interest,
and presently Sam had selected their next object tree. The boys were
astonished greatly at what they thought Sam's marvellous knowledge,
but to their wondering comments Sam replied:--
"I haven't done anything wonderful. A little knowledge of mathematics
has helped me, perhaps, but there isn't a thing in all this that isn't
perfectly simple. Any one of you might have found out all this for
himself, without books and without a teacher. It only requires you to
think a little and to use your eyes. Besides you've all done the same
thing many a time."
"I'll _bet_ I never did," said Billy Bowlegs.
"Yes you have, Billy, but you did it without thinking about it."
"When?"
"Whenever you have shot a rifle at anything."
"How?"
"By taking aim. You look through one sight over the other and at the
game, and you know then that you've got it in a line with your eye
and the sights. I've only been turning the thing around, and nobody
taught me how. You've only got to _use_ your eyes and your head to
make them worth ten times as much to you as they are now."
"Seems to me," said Sid Russell, "as if your head 'n eyes, or least
ways your head is a mighty oncommon good one."
"You're right dah, Mas' Sid," said Black Joe; "you're right for
sartain. I'se dun see Mas' Sam do some mighty cur'ous things, I is. He
dun make a fire wid water once, sho's you're born. 'Sides dat, I'se
dun heah de gentlemen say's how he's got a head more 'n a yard long,
and I'm blest if I don't b'lieve it's so."
All this was said at a little distance from Sam and beyond his
hearing, but he knew very well in what estimation his companions held
him, and he was anxious to impress them, not with his own superiority,
but with the fact that the difference was due chiefly to his habit of
thinking and observing. He wanted them to improve by association with
him, and to that end he took pains to show them the advantage which a
habit of observing everything and thinking about it gives its
possessor. For this reason he took pains to make no display of his
knowledge of Latin or of anything else which they had no chance to
learn. He wanted them to learn to use their eyes, their ears and their
heads, knowing very well that the greater as well as the better part
of education comes by observation and thinking, rather than from
books.
Just now he was striding forward as rapidly as he could, as it was
beginning to rain.
"Keep your eye on the hind sight boys, and don't lose it," he cried;
"we must hurry or we shall be caught in a pocket to-night."
Hour after hour they marched, the rain pouring down steadily, and the
ground becoming every moment softer. The walking wearied them
terribly, but they pushed on in the hope that they might be able to
cross the upper waters of the Nepalgah river before night. This would
place them on the west bank of that stream, where Sam believed that he
should find the marching tolerable. If they should fail in this, Sam
feared that the water would rise during the night, and fill all the
bottom lands. In that event he must continue marching down the east
bank of the river; not going very far out of his way, it is true, but
having to pass through what he was satisfied must be a much more
difficult country than that on the other side.
Night came at last, and they were yet not within sight of the stream,
notwithstanding their utmost exertions. Sam called a halt just before
dark, and selected a camping place.