“How are you feeling?” asked his uncle.
“I’m stiff,” confessed the boy; “that sideways wiggle seems to catch me in the small of the back.”
“It catches me, too,” the professor said, comfortingly, “and almost every one else in just the same way.”
“Doesn’t one ever get used to it?”
“The Arabs do, and people who travel in a camel-saddle a great deal. But one caravan trip won’t toughen you, my boy, and you needn’t expect it. Camels are not ideal beasts for riding, but they are so highly specialized for desert work that nothing can take their place.”
“I should think,” said Perry thoughtfully, “they could be useful on the alkali plains of our Southwest.”
“Especially since camels originated there,” said the professor.
“Camels did? In America? You’re joking, Uncle George!”
“Certainly they did. The camel is an American citizen.” The scientist smiled. “If coming over in the Mayflower gives the right to be considered one of the old American families, how about the camel? We’ve found his ancestors in the Uinta formation in Utah. What period is the Uinta, Perry?”
“Upper Eocene,” the boy answered promptly.