“You go to school in Valley View?” the corporal asked.
“High school,” Sandy told him. “We’re both juniors.”
“How long are you going to be in Alaska?”
“About three weeks, I guess. It’s the Christmas vacation, and my dad got our principal to let us take an extra week on account of the educational value of this expedition we’re going on.”
The corporal looked interested. “What kind of an expedition is it?”
“My dad is a United States government geologist,” Sandy explained. “This expedition is part of a long-range Canadian-American project to chart glacial movements during the Ice Age. We’ll be collecting soil, rock and ore samples on our way through western Canada and Alaska.”
“Sounds like fun,” the corporal said. “You’ll get a kick out of Alaska. It’s a great place. I’ve flown up there a couple of times.”
“What’s our forty-ninth state like, anyway?” Jerry asked curiously. “We bought it from the Indians for twenty-four dollars, didn’t we?”
Sandy and the corporal laughed. “That was Manhattan Island, you dope!” Sandy said. “We bought Alaska from the Russians for about $7,000,000.”
“It’s twice as big as Texas,” the corporal told them, “but the population is only a little over 200,000. And most of these people have only been there since the end of World War Two.”