"Then I am content."
John heard the conversation, and soon turned it into another direction, when he informed the Chief that the Chief of Venture Island as well as the leader of the criminal colony, were to accompany them to Wonder Island, and that the company would be incomplete without him and his family.
He looked at his visitors for some time, doubting in his mind the propriety of such a course, but the entreaties of Ephraim, and the urging of Muro and Uraso, were sufficient to decide the question, and[p. 180] the only matter that now weighed on his mind was to determine who should accompany him in this wonderful voyage.
Ta Babeda had never summoned up sufficient courage, while the ship was formerly in port, to board the vessel. His examination of the Pioneer was made from the shore. Now he would step into a new world.
He little knew what wonders would be exhibited to him. The ship's band was the greatest thing he had ever known, and he never tired of its music. But when he saw the curious piano, the music box that acted as though it had life, and the other evidences of civilized arts, that were found in the cabin, he was content to make the best of it.
Like all natives, as we have already stated, he was immoderately fond of eating, and the kitchen arrangements, where food was cooked without any fuel, interested him beyond everything else. He would sit at the entrance of the kitchen for minutes at a time.
The push buttons, the snap switches for the electric lights and for the cooking apparatus, were some things which he could not understand. The little innocent wires meant nothing to him, nor could the boys, or even John, explain the phenomenon to him so he could understand it.
The boys puzzled over this, as he was insistent upon an explanation. What finally happened, the very thing the boys tried to avoid in every way, came when he touched the two wires, and formed a short circuit through his hand.
He emitted one yell, and bounded out through the[p. 181] door, and it was some time before he could be induced to make further investigations. His expressions were very humorous, particularly when he insisted that the wires were mad, and didn't like him, and that they tried to pull his arms out of his shoulders.
Harry then took two of the wires and brought them together, and then pulled them apart. Each time this was done, a spark would flash. The object was to show that two wires were necessary to produce a circuit or a current.