human
Why, it's an old boat!
gpt
That it is, my lad.
human
But how did it come there?
gpt
Who can tell, Dick? Perhaps it floated out of the river at some time when there was a flood, and it was too big to move back again, and the people in the days when it was used did not care to dig a canal from here to the river.
human
Half a mile,
gpt
No, no. Not more than a quarter.
human
But it doesn't look like a fishing-boat,
gpt
No, my lad. As far as I can make out, it is the remains of an old war galley.
human
Then it must have belonged to the Danes.
gpt
Danes or Saxons, Dick.
human
But the wood's sound, cried Tom.
gpt
It can't be so old as that.
human
Why not, Tom? Your people dig out pine-roots, don't they, perfectly sound, and full of turpentine? This is pine wood, and full of turpentine too.
gpt
But it's such a while since the Danes and Saxons were here, Mr Marston,
human
A mere yesterday, my lad, compared to the time when the country about here was a great pine and birch forest, before this peat began to form.
gpt
Before the peat began to form!
human
To be sure! Pine and birch don't grow in peaty swamps, but in sandy ground with plenty of gravel. Look all about you at the scores of great pine-roots my men have dug out. They are all pine, and there must have been quite a large forest here once.
gpt
And was that farther back?
human
Perhaps thousands of years before the Danes first landed. The peat preserves the wood, Tom. Bog is not rotten mud, but the decayed masses that have grown in the watery expanse. Well, Dick, what do you think of it?
gpt
I wish we could get it home to our place to keep as a curiosity?
human
But it would want a shed over it, my lad, for the rain, wind, and sun would soon make an end of it.
gpt
Then, what are you going to do?
human
Get it out and up that slope they are cutting, along some planks if we can, and then fill up the trench.