“No, nothing but hottest summer always. But we have much rain, and our roads are not all paved with rock,” explained Fil’s father. “If we used those high wheels on the muddy roads, they would sink so far down that the buffalo or bullock could not pull out the cart that was loaded with rice or sugar.”
“So you see, the sleigh slips more easily through the slippery mud,” added Fil.
“But what if you fell off, a mile from a crossing?” I asked laughingly.
“Oh, he jokes too, and you don’t check him,” remarked Fil, who looked at his father. Fil’s father smiled.
“What is this tough, crooked elbow stick, fixed to a long pole?” I inquired.
“A plow,” answered Fil wisely:
“Don’t joke. How can you have a plow wholly made of wood?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you,” said Fil. “You see our rice fields are flooded and soft. We do not need a solid heavy steel plow, such as you need in hard, dry land. The water buffalo, who loves to wade through the flooded rice fields, easily pulls this bent stick, which plows up the mud. Then we drain the field and plant the rice seedlings, and flood the field again, because rice must grow in water.”
“It is a peculiar but lovely Philippines that you live in ; so different from our country, but perhaps even more charming,” I added.