“Rolls along the ground!” exclaimed Kendall. “I don’t believe it!”
Ned smiled kindly on his ignorance. “The mobilis,” he explained, “is one of the puff-balls, a small, round puff-ball. It is found on hillsides. Most puff-balls disseminate their pores—I mean spores—by the aid of the wind, remaining where they grow. But the mobilis as soon as it attains maturity detaches itself from its stalk and begins to roll. As I have said, they always grow on the sides of hills. Consequently they roll to the bottom, sowing their spores as they go. We always look along the foot of a hill until we find the dead mobilis. Then we know that we shall find growing ones further up.”
“Jimminy, that’s quite interesting!” exclaimed Harold. “Do you know, I rather think I’ll go in for mushrooms myself! It must be lots of fun collecting them.”
“Not bad,” replied Ned. “But of course there’s always the element of danger.”
“How do you mean?” Harold asked.
“Well, there are certain kinds that are poisonous not only to touch but to approach. There’s the leoparditus, for instance, a large, angry mushroom—although it would be more correct to give it the popular name of toadstool—that has a purplish body with small livid spots on it. The leoparditus is certain death if you touch it. Even if you only inhale its noxious fumes”—Ned choked a little there—“noxious fumes you will break out with a very painful rash all over the body, more especially the exposed portions. Then there is the Gumponicum eachewupus, which hides in the deep woods and springs out at you as you unsuspectingly pass. Its bite is certain death.”
Ned paused and stared gravely at the drop-light. There was a moment of silence. Then Kendall began to chuckle and Harold got rather red in the face.
“You were just stringing us, weren’t you?” he asked, with an attempt at a laugh. “I suppose that was pretty funny, Tooker.”
“Far be it from me to praise my own efforts,” replied Ned modestly. “You asked me what I was doing at Lloyd. As I didn’t care to tell you the truth and am far too polite to request you to mind your own business I did the best I could. I hope you found it amusing.”
“Yes, but I knew all the time you were stringing,” said Harold uncomfortably.