“I’m fixin’ the air now,” said Bud. “You be careful, suh, about landin’. This heah’s kinda scary!”
The air grew fresher. Markedly fresher, though Earth was still far away.
“That’s right nice,” said Bud, well pleased. “The stuff we breathe, suh, it’s made outa two kinds of stuff.” He referred, of course, to oxygen and nitrogen. “When we breathe, part of the air joins up with somethin’ else. Don’t it, suh?”
“It does,” said Murfree drily.
Bud knew no chemistry. He just knew facts, without knowing how he knew. Oxygen does combine with carbon to form carbon dioxide, which fouls the air.
“I—uh—fixed one o’ these dinkuses to pull on the good stuff,” said Bud pleasedly, “and push on the—uh—carbon, and it breaks that bad stuff apart. We get the good-breathin’ stuff back and the rest is soot, s
