If the petrified forest had been a queer-looking place by night, viewed by daylight it was nothing short of astonishing.
"It's a vegetable cemetery," said Cal, looking about him. "Each of these stone trees is a monument, to my way of thinking."
"Ach, you are a fullosopher," applauded Herr Muller, who had just risen and was gingerly climbing out of the tonneau.
"And you're full o' prunes," grunted Cal to himself, vigorously slicing bacon, while Nat fixed the oatmeal, and Joe Hartley got some canned fruit ready.
Presently breakfast was announced, and a merry, laughing party gathered about the camp fire to despatch it.
"I'll bet we're the first boys that ever ate breakfast in a petrified forest," commented Joe.
"I reckin' you're right," agreed Cal, "it makes me feel like an ossified man."
"Dot's a feller whose headt is turned to bone?" asked Herr Muller.
"Must be Ding-dong," grinned Joe, which promptly brought on a renewal of hostilities.
"I've read that the petrification is caused by particles of iron pyrites, or lime, taking the place of the water in the wood," put in Nat.
"Maybe so," agreed Cal, "but I've seen a feller petrified by too much forty rod liquor."
"I wonder what shook so many of the stony stumps down," inquired Joe, gazing about him with interest.
"Airthquakes, I guess," suggested Cal, "they get 'em through here once in a while and when they come they're terrors."
"We have them in Santa Barbara, too," said Nat, "they're nasty things all right."
"Come f-f-f-f-from the e-e-e-earth getting a t-t-t-t-tummy ache," sagely announced Ding-dong Bell.
While the boys got the car ready and filled the circulating water tank with fresh water from the spring, Herr Muller and Cal washed the tin dishes, and presently all was ready for a start. Herr Muller decided that he would ride his horse this morning and so the move was made, with that noble steed loping along behind the auto at the best pace his bony frame was capable of producing. Luckily for him, the going was very hard among the fallen stumps of the petrified trees, and the tall, column-like, standing trunks, and the car could not do much more than crawl.
All were in jubilant spirits. The bracing air and the joyous sensation of taking the road in the early dawn invigorated them.