“I can hardly believe it.”
“It’s true,” replied Mr. Wilbur. “And what is more at the time of the Revolutionary War it was a sure remedy for constipation.”
Georgie found all this very amusing.
“Then,” Mr. Wilbur continued, “a certain Mr. Kier discovered it made a good, if rather smelly, lighting fluid. And that of course was just the beginning.”
“It’s more fascinating than a fairy story,” Georgie said. “Please go on.”
“I think it was in 1857, the owner of a small piece of land decided that underground an oil creek there must be a primary source for the substance Mr. Kier had bottled so profitably. He found that by tapping wells with a pick and shovel there was an ooze of oil.”
Georgie was listening to him intently.
“When a friend of his nearly drowned,” Mr. Wilbur continued, “bec
