HOUSE-BUILDING.
Bright and early the next morning I awoke to what I felt must be a busy
day. A plunge in the sea, a good bath in the brook, and a frugal
breakfast of cocoanuts consumed but a few minutes of the time, which,
being now practically my sole capital, must be expended with due regard
to economy. The turtle was lying safe on its back, and as the sun would
soon be very hot, my first care was to break off some shrubs and erect a
shade for the creature. I should have been glad to pour a few buckets of
sea water over it, but buckets were not among my present conveniences.
The first work on hand was of course the lime-burning. I found a great
piece of bark, which I loosened from a fallen and partially decayed log,
and used as a sort of tray on which to carry the separate heaps of
shells to the spot where the burning was to be done. To economize time
and labor, I concluded to burn the lime at the spot where I should
subsequently want it. I selected for this purpose a flat piece of smooth
sand free of stones and just above high tide, where the waves could not
in ordinary weather wash into it. With my hands and pieces of bark I
scooped out a basin about ten feet square and a foot in depth, throwing
the sand up all around in a low bank. In this basin I piled dry wood and
the shells in layers until the pile was five or six feet high.
This took me until noon, working hard every minute, with the
perspiration streaming from every pore. Then I discovered that my fire
was out. But I had no trouble to start another with the burning-glass,
as the sun was shining fiercely and so directly overhead that I had to
search for my shadow. Presently the great flames were roaring and
leaping high in the air and casting out such a heat that I was glad to
retire to the brook for a drink and a cocoanut lunch while waiting for
the fuel to burn out.
As I rested in the shade, I employed myself in twisting or rudely
spinning some cord out of the fibre of the cocoanut husks. I first
pounded the husk between two stones until the fibre was reduced to a
mass resembling coarse hemp, and then began to draw it out and twist it
as one twists a hay band, only into a slenderer thread. As fast as it
became twisted, I wound the thread on a short stick about six inches
long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. With the cord wound smoothly
on this stick, and a half-hitch taken around one end, I could roll the
cord and stick between my hand and leg to give the twist necessary for
the spinning operation, and at the same time use the other hand to
manipulate the entangling fibres. By this simple process it was possible
to produce the thread, or cöir, quite rapidly.
In about an hour and a half my great fire was burned to the ground, and
as a result there lay in the shallow excavation a mingled mass of
embers, ashes, lime, fragments of partly burned shells, wood, and
charcoal. Of course the ground beneath was very hot, and I could not
work among the embers and hot fragments. The tide was now beginning to
come in, and I dug a trench from the pit to the sea, through which the
water flowed till it quenched the fire and slaked the lime, and partly
sinking in the porous sand, left: a muddy compound of lime, ashes, and
sand, all over the bottom of the pit. I filled and plastered up the
trench except a narrow gateway, cleaned out the sticks and fragments,
and sprinkled dry sand over the mud, raking it well in and smoothing the
surface as much as possible with the aid of sticks and a great
clam-shell. It now remained for me only to let the cement or mortar set
and dry, and then, I hoped, it would prove impervious to water.
There were still some hours of daylight, which could not be better
employed, I thought, than upon the construction of some better shelter
than the upturned chest had afforded. All day I had been turning over in
my mind a plan for a hut or shanty that I fancied might be quickly and
easily built. There was no telling how long the fair weather, which had
now lasted for several days, might continue, and the utter wretchedness
of existence if a storm should find me without a shelter was not to be
patiently contemplated.
In gathering fuel near the edge of the forest I had noticed a great
quantity of dead stalks standing six or seven feet high, straight as an
arrow and perhaps an inch and a half in diameter except where they
tapered at the top. The plant looked like some species of hibiscus. Any
quantity of these stalks was to be had, and they were light yet strong
enough for my purpose.
I selected a nice level piece of dry sand near the stream and fifty
yards or so from the sea as a site for my proposed house. The shadow
from a clump of cocoanut palms fell upon the spot for a part of the day,
and near by was a bit of rock where I had sat at noon spinning cöir. Two
young palms grew there about eight feet apart, the trunks of which would
serve for the main supports of the structure. I hunted about in the
forest until I found a reasonably straight stick, that would reach from
one of these trees to the other, to serve as a ridgepole, and lashed it
firmly to them with some of my cocoanut cord, about eight feet from the
ground. Then I brought hibiscus stalks, taking care to cut their butts
diagonally. They were easily severed by a single blow. These stalks I
set upright in the sand; as firmly as possible, for the four walls of
the hut, each wall consisting of two rows, the inner row being planted
close together and the outer row parallel to it at a distance of about
an inch and a half, the stalks of the outer row being separated from one
another three or four inches.
When they were set up, which did not take long as I made no effort to
drive them very firmly in the sand, I cut off the tops of the stalks
forming the end walls to the shape that the roof was subsequently to
take, and reduced the side walls to a common level. In the side next the
sea I left an opening for a doorway. The space between the rows of
stalks it was my intention to fill with dry grass laid horizontally, and
to lay in at intervals stalks of hibiscus, finishing off the top of the
walls with a good stout stalk of the same, laid in all around and lashed
to both rows with cord. This, I thought, would make a reasonably stout
and weatherproof wall, and so it subsequently turned out. But as night
came on at this stage of the work, I could not complete even the walls
of my hut before dark, and was fain to content myself with my bed under
the chest.
I was awakened from a sound sleep by something crawling over me.
Forgetful of where I was, I sprang up erect, and my head, coming
violently in contact with the chest, overturned it, while I fell back
half stunned with the blow. The moon had gone down and the stars were
shining brightly, but there was not light enough to see anything
distinctly except on the water, where a phosphorescent gleam lighted up
the breaking waves with a pale greenish glow which ran in streaks along
the surface.
As soon as I could collect my scattered senses and get upon my feet, I
began to grope around in search of the cause of the disturbance.
Presently a loathsome, warty, tuberculous land crab scuttled over my
naked foot, and I could then make out literally hundreds of shadowy
forms sidling over the sand. There was no more sleep for me that night,
and I was glad to think from the appearance of the sky that it was not
more than two hours before the dawn. As I had already been sleeping for
eight or ten hours I felt rested, but was faint with hunger. Cocoanut no
longer had an attraction for me, but as there was nothing else at hand I
forced myself to eat enough to relieve my faintness. A good cup of
coffee or even a bowl of hot soup would have seemed a fortune to me
then, but I was obliged to be satisfied with a deep draught of water,
which lay in my stomach sensibly cold and heavy. It was evident that
there was no time to lose in getting more nutritious food than
cocoanuts, if I was to keep my strength. This determined me to kill the
turtle that very morning, without waiting for the slow operation of the
salt pan even if it proved ready to fill with sea water that day; for
the evaporation of such an amount of water might take several days
before the residue was salt enough for brine. I went to look at the
captive and found it as I had left it the day before.
I watched the eastern horizon patiently for signs of dawn. Finally a
gray pale glow lit up the sky and slowly changed to a tender pink and
primrose, then suddenly the golden rim of the sun shot up and daylight
as suddenly took the place of night. The streaks and wreaths of mist
that lay sleeping in the hollows of the waves floated away and
dissolved.
It did not take me long to kill and dress the turtle, and to pack the
meat, both callipash and callipee,--as the two sorts composing a
turtle’s anatomy are termed,--into the upper shell and to cover it up
with the breast plate. I now resolved to have some hot turtle soup.
Among the photographic apparatus were two shallow developing-trays, made
of sheet iron and lined with porcelain. They were about an inch in depth
and six by ten inches in their lateral dimensions. While these would
serve well enough perhaps to stew or fry the meat in, they did not hold
enough to make soup. There was, however, a large glass bottle holding a
gallon, filled with a solution of hyposulphite of soda to be used as a
fixing solution for photographic negatives. This I emptied and washed
thoroughly with sand and water until it was perfectly clean. Cutting
some of the meat into small fragments, I put them into the bottle until
it was a third full, then filled it with equal parts of sea water and
fresh water, as this proportion seemed to taste about salt enough. I
then set the bottle in the hot ashes until the contents were warm,
gradually moving it nearer and nearer the fire, until finally all was so
hot that I no longer feared the heat would crack the glass; so, drawing
out some embers, I set the bottle boldly upon them, where the water soon
began to simmer and gently boil. In the mean time, I stewed some of the
meat with sea water in a developing-tray for immediate consumption, and
of this made a good breakfast.
After breakfast I examined the salt pan to see if the cement had set
sufficiently, but found that the mortar was still somewhat friable and
not hard though seemingly quite dry. I concluded, therefore, to let it
harden for another twenty-four hours before putting it to the test; but
to obtain a small supply of salt for immediate use I filled the two
developing trays with sea water and set them on the fire to boil.
When these operations were fairly under way, I resumed the
house-building. First I gathered a great quantity of coarse, dry grass
in the bottom land of the creek and laid it in the walls in the manner
already described. When this was completed to my satisfaction, I began
the construction of the roof after the following fashion: From the
ridgepole to the side walls I laid at intervals of six inches
hibiscus-stalk rafters, securing them in place at both ends by hay bands
twisted out of the dry, tough grass, the lower ends of the rafters
projecting to form eaves. On these rafters and parallel to the ridgepole
I tied in like manner other stalks, at intervals of six inches. Here was
a light and reasonably strong framework ready to receive a thatching of
grass or palm leaves, but I concluded that grass would be preferable as
it would make a roof better calculated to resist the wind.
Night was now approaching, and as the weather seemed as settled as ever,
the lack of the thatch would be no special hardship. I hurried therefore
to drag my chest up to the house and arrange my bed of grass within the
walls, guarding against another intrusion of the land crabs by means of
a row of short hibiscus stalks across the doorway. The result of the
day’s boiling of sea water in my developing-trays was something over a
tablespoonful of salt. The soup which had been simmering all day in the
bottle was delicious, and I made a hearty supper of part of it and some
of the boiled meat. With the photographic apparatus were two chemist’s
graduated glasses, one of eight and one of four ounces. These made
capital drinking-cups. The larger one I used for that purpose, and into
the smaller put the precious, hard-earned salt.
As I had no notion to go to bed with the sun, I cast about for something
to occupy the two or three hours before bedtime, and concluded to fry
up a store of turtle meat in my trays. By nine o’clock I had thus
prepared fully twenty pounds of the meat, which I piled upon a pavement
of clam-shells in one corner of the house. The land crabs being duly
fenced out, I turned in and slept soundly all night.
In the morning I was up at break of day, and ate a breakfast of hot
soup. Immediately after breakfast I began to thatch my roof. For this
purpose I carefully cut bundles of the long, dry grass, and beginning at
the eaves, laid a row, butts down, in a layer about three inches in
thickness. On this, near the tops of the grass, I tied a stalk of the
hibiscus; then another layer of grass, covering the first down two
thirds of its length and covering also the hibiscus stalk; and so on,
layer after layer, on both pitches of the roof, until the ridgepole was
reached. At the comb of the ridge I finished all by bending down the
grass at each side and securing it with a couple of the stalks, one at
each side. I then heaped up the sand around the bottom of the walls on
the outside, to give greater stability to the structure, and dug a ditch
to prevent the water from flooding the interior if it should come down
faster than the sandy soil could absorb it.
The next thing to make was some sort of door, and the planning and
fashioning of this gave me occasion for no little thought and trouble.
Finally, after trying other methods unsuccessfully, I rigged up a sort
of rolling blind out of the stalks by cutting a number of them of a
length a little greater than the width of the doorway and tying them
close together by a cord at each end and one in the middle, so that the
whole would be flexible like a curtain. This I hung over the doorway and
attached a loop at each lower corner to secure it when it was down. When
the door was to be opened this curtain could be rolled up and held in
position by pulling a cord, or could be swung aside when ingress or
egress merely was desired. Along the walls inside I made some rude
shelves of hibiscus stalks, so that I might have my small possessions
handy and safe.
I intended as soon as convenient to spin a good supply of cord and make
a hammock to swing from one of the palm pillars to the other. In the
mean time, as a temporary expedient for a bed, I laid a platform of
hibiscus stalks in one corner, and covered them with a thick layer of
grass. For ventilation and light, I cut under the projecting eaves four
openings, or windows, into which, so sheltered, the rain would not be
likely to drive. The chest answered for a seat or table as occasion
required.
Here was a reasonably comfortable dwelling where I should be safe from
the rain. And, indeed, it was completed none too soon, for even as I was
sitting in the house on the chest, resting and contemplating my work, I
heard the wind rustling among the palm leaves and was sensible of a
darkening of the sky, which betokened a storm. The swaying of the two
young palms which held the ridgepole at once warned me that the motion
was likely to rack and weaken the whole structure. The tops of these two
trees must come off at once. By hauling out the chest and using it as a
scaffolding, I could reach the palm trunks at a point above the
ridgepole; but when I tried to cut the tree with my knife, I found it
would take too long to sever it. Therefore, the only way was to climb
the slender trunk and break off its branches. One of the trunks bent so
under my weight as to break short off above the ridgepole, dropping me
on the sand, but without harm. The other one I succeeded in denuding of
its crown of leaves.
The storm was coming up grandly from the southeast. The sea in that
direction was of an indigo tint streaked with flashes of foam, and above
hung a leaden mass of clouds with a touch of copper-color here and
there, where the internal fires flashed and glowed. The wind sank to a
perfect calm, and occasionally a great drop of rain fell warm as blood.
I had brought all the contents of the chest up near the hut, and I now
hurried to get them under the shelter. The fire was smouldering near by,
and there was a good supply of wood piled near it. I hurriedly carried
this into the house, and also four or five charred and ignited sticks,
which I placed in the middle of the room on the sand together in such
manner that they would smoulder slowly there and keep alight. The smoke
might be an annoyance, but as soon as there was a draught of air, it
would drift out through the ventilators, and I could keep to windward of
it. Finally I ran out and dragged in my turtle shell with its store of
meat, and put that also under shelter.
The calm still continued deathlike and dark. When all was under shelter
and I had returned from the brook with my goblet filled with fresh
water, I stood at the open door, looking at the sea. Suddenly, without
any further warning, down came the rain in bucketfuls, falling in
vertical lines,--such a shower as is rarely seen. The roof held tight,
the water streaming from it like a cataract, but not a drop coming
through to the interior. In about twenty minutes the rain as suddenly
ceased. Looking out over the ocean, I saw on the surface a streak of
blue-black water, parallel with the horizon and flecked with tiny
streaks of white, advancing. The squall was coming. Hurriedly I unrolled
my door-curtain and fastened it securely at the bottom. I was just in
time. As the blast struck the house, the whole structure trembled and
swayed, but held fast. I could hear the shrieking of the wind as it
swept through the neighboring palms, and the occasional crash of a
breaking stem mingled with the dashing rain which now drove violently
against the roof and walls, and I thanked my good-fortune that this
shelter was ready. This gale continued to blow until long after dark.
Indeed it was still raging when I fell asleep, to dream of shipwrecks
and hurricanes.
When I awoke early in the morning and looked out through the ventilator,
I found that the wind had fallen to a moderate breeze and had veered
around to the northeast, bringing a dense fog, and that a fine rain was
falling with a settled appearance such as betokened a wet day. My first
care was to look after my fire. It was almost out, and to rekindle it
from the few smouldering sparks was a matter requiring very tender
manipulation. But at last I had it going again, and my pans of turtle
meat stewing and frying on a gentle blaze, that demanded to be watched
constantly.
This was a good time to overhaul my stock of books to see what they
were, and to find out whether the salt water had left them in condition
for use. They were now perfectly dry, but the bindings were warped and
loosened. The leaves were in many places stuck together, and yellow and
brown leather stains had crept in about the margins. But they still held
together and were legible. The books consisted of a dozen well-selected
novels, a manual of photography, the United States Dispensatory, a
student’s manual of botany, a school geology, and a German word-book.
Looking over these books while I lay on my couch, with an occasional
glance at the cooking, I passed the time very pleasantly all the
morning.
At noon the rain still continued; so, not to be idle, I ran out and
picked up some freshly fallen cocoanuts both to vary my diet and to
obtain a supply of fibre for spinning. The whole afternoon was spent in
preparing the fibre and spinning it into cord, and by night I had
accumulated quite enough to make me a hammock. This, I resolved, should
be my next task if the foul weather continued. The smoke from the
smouldering fire was a source of great annoyance, by getting into my
eyes. I determined to remedy this as soon as I could, by erecting a
fireplace and chimney of some sort. But in the mean time I utilized this
annoying guest as much as possible by hanging several sticks full of
strips of the turtle meat in the peak of the roof, where the smoke
collected thickest, that it might become partially cured. This, I hoped,
would preserve it, as it had been lying in sea water in the shell; and
so it proved. For after this smoking the meat dried without taint, and,
as I subsequently found, made most excellent eating.
With melted turtle fat, a clam-shell, and a wick made of fibre, I
improvised a light, and after it grew dark, fell to looking over my
library until bedtime, the rain still pattering on the thatch when I
retired. The next morning the weather was still boisterous, the rain
driving and the heavy mists sweeping along the sea. The leaden clouds
still hung low and dark. This day I spent indoors working at my hammock
and varying the monotony by hanging up the last of the meat to smoke,
looking over my books and wishing for fair weather. I finished the
hammock, but could not use it on account of the smoke, and was obliged
to sleep on my pallet as before. As the turtle fat was all gone and
therefore no light was to be had, I turned in early and awoke in the
morning at dawn. On going out I found the sky clear and the sun rising
fair. All the foliage looked fresh and bright after the rain, and the
birds were cheerfully singing in the forest. It was a glorious change,
and my confinement in the house for two days gave added zest to it. This
would be a good day for an exploring trip, and I thought I would spend
it in such an expedition.