“Can’t bend wood so easily unless it has some sap in it,” Lanky replied. “Have to wait until spring for that, and when spring comes you don’t want a sled.”
Reaching the camp in the middle of the afternoon, the boys warmed before the fire, got something to eat, and proceeded at once to execute their plans for a sled. The boards were very soon obtained, several heavier pieces for making runners, and by seeking all over the place they found enough nails to make the work complete.
At dusk, when the day was closing, the boys looked down on a piece of work that was done. They had a sled.
“Next thing is to see if the thing runs,” said Lanky.
“It’ll run if you get to the top of a hill and start it downhill with enough of a load on it,” replied Jack Eastwick.
This started Lanky to laughing, whereupon the boys knew he had some idea inside his brain which was hunting for a way out.
“Fellows,” he said, “there’s one thing I have been wondering about ever since we studied it in school. What did people do before Newton discovered gravitation?”
Frank looked at Lanky with an amused smile.
“You see,” Lanky went on soberly, as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders and all the peoples of the world were waiting for him to speak, “how did things fall to the earth before Newton discovered gravitation? Couldn’t do it, could they?”
Buster started to answer Lanky, to explain to Lanky that gravitation always existed, but the other boys drowned out the explanation with their hearty laughter.