He broke some branches from a clump of pine bushes, set them against the rock, then sat down with Ned under them. The bushes kept off the sun, and the water, no longer evaporating, collected in a little cavity of the rock, and they were bountifully supplied. Opening their packs, they began to eat with the greatest relish.
"We're all right now, Wal!" said Ned.
"I shall be when I get this junk of beef down. It came from Elm Island—Lion Ben's old brindled ox. Only see the fat on it!—that goes to the right place, Ned. I call this rather a poor, mean country; the soil seems to be a hungry gravel, all burnt up; scarcely any wood."
"I suppose they don't need a great deal, only a little to cook with, the weather is so warm."
"The captain says they have cold winds in the spring, from the mountains, and hail and snow—hail enough sometimes to kill sheep and destroy the whole crop."
They now resumed their packs and went on, chatting and making their observations in respect to the land and the peasants whom they saw at work in the fields.
"Where do these people live?" asked Ned. "I don't see a house, although there are plenty of fields, and people at work in them. Only see the women shovelling sand and picking up rocks! As I live, if there ain't a horse and jackass working together!"
"Look over there," said Walter; "see those oxen, the yoke lashed to their horns."
"Wonder where they cut any hay!" said Ned; "don't see any mowing-fields."
"I don't suppose they need much; they have no snow to lie, and the cattle graze all winter."