“There you are!” exclaimed Bob, triumphantly. “You don’t realize how well off you are, Doughnuts.”
“Maybe not,” conceded Jimmy. “School isn’t so bad after you once get started, but I hate to think of settling down to the old grind after that wonderful summer at Ocean Point.”
“But we’ll have the radio just the same,” Joe pointed out. “That’s one of the good things about it; you can take it with you wherever you go.”
“Yes, I was reading an article in one of the radio magazines a little while ago about that,” said Bob. “The article was written by a trapper 64 in the northern part of Canada. He told how he had set up his outfit in the center of a howling wilderness and had received all the latest news of the world in his shack, not to mention music of every kind. He said that the natives and Indians thought it must be magic, and were looking all over the shack for the spirit that they supposed must be talking into the headphones. That trapper was certainly a radio fan, if there ever was one, and he wrote a mighty interesting letter, too.”
“I should think it would be interesting,” said Herb. “I’d like to read it, if you still have it around.”
Bob rummaged around in a big pile of radio magazines and finally found what he was looking for. The boys read every word of the letter, and were more than ever impressed by the wonderful possibilities of radiophony.
No longer would it be necessary for an exploring expedition to be lost sight of for months, or even years. Wedged in the Arctic ice floes, or contending with fever and savage animals in the depths of some tropical jungle, the explorers could keep in touch with the civilized world as easily as though bound on a week end fishing trip. The aeroplane soaring in the clouds far above the earth, or the submarine under the earth’s waters, could be informed and guided by it. 65 Certainly of all the wonders of modern times, this was the most marvelous and far-reaching.
Something of all this passed through the boys’ minds as they sat in ruminative silence, thinking of the lonely man in the wilderness with his precious wireless.
“I suppose we should feel pretty lucky to be around just at this stage of the earth’s history,” said Bob, thoughtfully. “We’re living in an age of wonders, and I suppose we’re so used to them that most of the time we don’t realize how wonderful they really are.”
“That’s true enough, all right,” agreed Joe. “When you step into an automobile these days, you don’t stop to think that a few years ago the fastest way to travel was behind old Dobbin. The old world is stepping ahead pretty lively these days, and no mistake.”