ndles. Carefully they were laid out in rows upon the table.

It appeared at first a large but disappointing display. There were
plants, flowers, fruits, leaves, roots, nuts, beans, honeys, gums, bark,
seeds, bees and a few kinds of insects.

The study of plants--or botany, as it is called--was a kind of natural
history which had never interested me very much. I had considered it,
compared with the study of animals, a dull science. But as Long Arrow
began taking up the various things in his collection and explaining
their qualities to us, I became more and more fascinated. And before
he had done I was completely absorbed by the wonders of the Vegetable
Kingdom which he had brought so far.

"These," said he, taking up a little packet of big seeds, "are what I
have called 'laughing-beans.'"

"What are they for?" asked Bumpo.

"To cause mirth," said the Indian.

Bumpo, while Long Arrow's back was turned, took three of the beans and
swallowed them.

"Alas!" said the Indian when he discovered what Bumpo had done. "If he
wished to try the powers of these seeds he should have eaten no more
than a quarter of a one. Let us hope that he does not die of laughter."

The beans' effect upon Bumpo was most extraordinary. First he broke
into a broad smile; then he began to giggle; finally he burst into such
prolonged roars of hearty laughter that we had to carry him into
the next room and put him to bed. The Doctor said afterwards that
he probably would have died laughing if he had not had such a strong
constitution. All through the night he gurgled happily in his sleep.
And even when we woke him up the next morning he rolled out of bed still
chuckling.

Returning to the Reception Room, we were shown some red roots which Long
Arrow told us had the property, when made into a soup with sugar and
salt, of causing people to dance with extraordinary speed and endurance.
He asked us to try them; but we refused, thanking him. After Bumpo's
exhibition we were a little afraid of any more experiments for the
present.

There was no end to the curious and useful things that Long Arrow had
collected: an oil from a vine which would make hair grow in one
night; an orange as big as a pumpkin which he had raised in his own
mountain-garden in Peru; a black honey (he had brought the bees that
made it too and the seeds of the flowers they fed on) which would put
you to sleep, just with a teaspoonful, and make you wake up fresh in the
morning;