When they returned to the garden area after their last meal of the day, they found that the ground could be worked easily. Electric tools made the job quick and efficient. Fertilizer and soil conditioner were worked into the ground after the surface had been loosened up for several feet down.
“Did you say we could plant seeds tomorrow?” Jill asked, when they were through.
“That’s right,” her father replied. “The chemicals we have put in the ground are almost miraculous in the speed with which they work in the soil. They can literally do the job overnight.”
Jill and Ted went to bed tired and untroubled that night. But not Randy. Before Ted dropped off, he heard Randy tossing restlessly in the bunk below. Ted caught some of the words muttered by the boy: “Father ... miss you ... ever come back to me?”
They had been kept so busy during those first days in their new home that Ted had almost forgotten that Randy wasn’t his brother. Randy seemed to have taken to the family very well, Ted thought, but he realized no foster parents could take the place of his real father. As Ted fell asleep, he was thinking what an unhappy day it was going to be for all of them when Randy found out that his father was never going to return.
The young folks planted seeds the next afternoon when they came home from school. Then in the next few days, they could scarcely wait to see the first seedlings break through the soil. The little green crooks popped up the morning that Dr. Kenton was to leave on his expedition.
The scientist said that the plants would grow rapidly and produce edible food within the next ten days. He gave the children instructions for tending the crops, and they memorized his directions.
He had showed Jill, Ted, and Randy how to attend to the mechanical functions of the home and also how to run the boat. The three helped him to load his gear into the boat, and then stood by as Dr. Kenton bade farewell to his wife. There were tears in Mrs. Kenton’s eyes as she waved good-by from inside the house.
Yank watched the strange goings-on from in front of his own dwelling. He seemed to understand that Dr. Kenton was leaving, but he still had not made friends with him.
When they were all in the boat, Jill dropped a fuel pill into the tank, and Ted took the steering wheel. He skillfully guided the boat along the winding watercourse to Main Canal and along its length to the science building. They all helped unload the gear on the dock, and Dr. Kenton said that this was where they must part.