“What is ocher, father?” asked Rob.
“Chemically speaking, son, it is iron peroxide. In plain terms—iron rust.”
“But why is some of it red and some yellow?” questioned Ed.
Father laughed. “That calls for some more hard words, words that tell what, but not so much why or how. That part you will have to puzzle out when you are in college. The red receives its color from the sesquioxide, and the yellow from the hydrous sesquioxide of iron.”
“But where has all that iron rust come from?” asked Rob. “Are there any iron mines about here?”
“No,” replied Mr. Allen, “I have seen no indication of iron in the rock of the bluffs which push up through the surface here. Yet the water of all these marshes seems to be more or less impregnated with iron. And it is that fact which gives to this section its peculiar value in the culture of cranberries. Somewhere at the north—how far, who can say?—this water of the Iron Creek marsh, you may be sure, flows over a bed of iron ore. Who knows but that some day you boys may be the ones to locate that iron mine?”
Mr. Allen believed that boys, in order to become well-developed, strong men, should be allowed a wide range for experiment, thinking that the lessons thus learned would be of more permanent value than those learned in books or from mere advice. So he agreed to the plan the boys had explained, of rafting their five barrels of ochre down the river to Necedah.
Two days were spent in mining and bringing the mineral to the bank of the stream, another day in building the raft, and, as the river was half-bank full with the June rise, but two more days were required to bring them to the big sawmill town at the foot of the great granite bluff.
The boys had many questions to answer, when they had found the good-natured lumberman, but he took the raw “paint” off their hands, and the boys with happy hearts turned their faces homeward with five crisp five-dollar bills in their pockets.
These youngsters were not to be the discoverers of the hidden iron mine away to the north, for many necessary duties pressed in upon them, and they found no time to spare for so uncertain a trip, but when they had grown to manhood, the railroads did indeed come, and even before their coming, the mine was laid open. As the boys were bargaining with Mr. Blake for the sale of their ocher, they noticed in the crowd of interested bystanders “Old John T.”, as everybody called the great man of all that country. “His eyes were like two sharp augers under those heavy eyebrows,” said Rob, “as he asked questions regarding the deposit, the lay of the land, and the direction of the flowing water.”