TAPPING FOR TUBA.
ALILA was wide awake before sunrise of the next day. He did not lie on
his mat lazily watching to see if a lizard or newt should creep out of
a corner, as he often did on other mornings. It was only the day before
that he pulled a newt by its tail just to see if the tail would really
come off in his hand. It did, for a fact! and away Mr. Newt scuttled
without any tail.
Wasn't it a little cruel and ungrateful in Alila, when he knew how much
the newts as well as the lizards do to let him sleep comfortably? They
destroy ants and spiders and other creeping things, so that Alila's
mother never kills them nor drives them away.
Neither did Alila stop to play with his pet cat this morning--such an
odd cat, too, with a queer little twist in her tail like that of a pug
dog. Alila was dressed before his father waked.
While waiting, he went out into the yard to sharpen his knife. But he
had no whetstone. There are more ways than one of doing things, we have
already discovered. The boy took a piece of wood and covered it with a
paste made of ashes and oil. Then he rubbed the blade of his knife back
and forth over this till the edge was sharp enough to split a hair with
ease.
Next he got together some vessels of bamboo and two long bamboo rods.
He was just a little bit nervous, although it was not in his nature to
be easily excited. He said to himself:
"Oh, dear, I hope I shall not have to wait much longer."
At this very moment he looked up and there was his kind, quiet father
standing in the doorway.
[Illustration: "HE WAS AS NIMBLE AS A SQUIRREL"]
"All ready!" And the two started for the cocoanut grove not far away.
As soon as they reached the place, Alila took out his sharp knife.
Work began at once, for notches must be cut in the tree, one above
another, in which to place his toes. As one notch was made, the boy
drew himself high enough to get a foothold in it; then, reaching up, he
cut the next one and drew himself up to that, and so on until he had
reached the top, fully sixty feet above the ground. A cocoanut-tree, as
you probably remember, has no branches whatever to give any help to a
person in climbing.
And now Alila came down again. He did it so easily and gracefully, it
was a pleasure to watch him. As soon as he was within reach, his father
handed him vessels of bamboo, which the boy fastened to his waist
and again climbed the tree. One might almost say he was as nimble as
a squirrel, yet that does not express the long, graceful movements of
his body as he rose far from the ground.
When he was once more at the top of the tree, he made deep cuts in the
trunk directly under the great tuft of leaves, and hung his bamboo
vessels so the sap could flow into them.
Now for the same work in the next tree. Do you think he must go down
to the ground again and go through all the work he had in climbing the
first tree? Not at all. His father reached up to him two long bamboo
rods. He took the first one and stretched it across to the next tree.
This would serve as a bridge over which he could walk. The second one
was placed above the first and would make a good hand-rail.
Alila did not think of the danger of a walk in mid-air on such a
slender support. His head was cool, his feet were firm, his body
light, and he passed from one tree to another in perfect safety. He was
happy as a king to be trusted by his father to take such a risk.
Think of a fall from a height like that! Suppose for one instant that
the bamboo should give way under the boy's feet or failed to hold
in the tree-top! That would have ended our little Alila's life in a
moment, or at least made him a cripple for the rest of his days.
The fact is, however, that the boy had no accident, and every day
afterward, as long as the sap continued to flow, he went out to the
cocoanut grove, collected the tuba, and carried a good supply of it to
the planter's mansion.