that constantly throws from the end of each leaf a drop of water. These
drops sometimes follow each other so fast that there is a little jet of
water formed in the air above the leaf.
But water is not the only drink that we get from trees. In Central and
South America grows the cow-tree, which gives milk! This milk can be
obtained during all seasons, but is much more abundant in the spring.
If a deep cut is made with a hatchet in the bark of the tree a stream
of milk gushes out, and flows freely. It yields the greatest quantity
at sunrise, and, at that hour, in the places where this tree grows, men
and women come from all directions to the tree nearest their homes to
get a supply of this refreshing drink. They bring pitchers with them,
and take some of the milk back to their families.
This white fluid is like cow’s milk in appearance, but it is not
equally good from all trees. But it is just so with the cows, you know.
Some of these animals give rich yellow milk, and some of the milk is
blue-white, and thin. Some give a great deal, and others very little.
And some cow trees yield richer and yellower milk than others, but it
is all sweet and wholesome, and of a pleasant smell. It tastes, in
fact, almost exactly like cow’s milk. Like that it is used for making
custards, puddings, &c.; and, when boiled, behaves just as ordinary
milk does, and will run over the vessel in a minute, if not watched.
When allowed to stand for a time cream forms on the top. This is taken
off, and made into a sort of cheese, not very different from our
cheeses.
[Illustration: THE COW TREE.]
This is a very nice kind of cow to have—this vegetable cow—as it
requires no feeding, or care, and, when it dies others spring up in its
place. It seems a pity that we cannot have these economical cows in our
country.
We have plants here that yield a milky juice when the stalks are broken
or cut, but you must not be beguiled into drinking any of these milky
saps, for they are very disagreeable in taste, being sharp and bitter;
and many of them are poisonous.
THE JOLLY CABORDMEN.
There was once a nation of remarkably genial people who knew no evil
and would not have practiced it if they had known it. They were very
industrious, and their days were so busy and they took such an interest
in their work, that they had no time to be wicked or sad.
They were called Cabordmen, for what reason I know not, for the name of
their country was not Cabord. Their principal industry was tilling the
soil, and they generally worked with a will.
[Illustration: THE JOLLY CABORDMEN AT WORK.]
When they first settled their country the land was poor and very little
grew upon it that was worth having. But, year by year, the soil became
richer, on account of the care they took of it, and all sorts of
valuable grains, and grasses, and vegetables, and fruits were grown,
and these Cabordmen had all and more than they wanted of the good
things of the earth.
So they waxed rich and happy, and there never was a time when a man
was hungry that he did not have some good things to eat, and it very
seldom happened that any of these hard workers found himself without an
appetite at meal-time.
For people who work hard and well are very apt to have all they want
and to want all they have. If they do not want it to use themselves,
they want it to sell or give away.
So, in time the people of this country became not only very comfortable
but very wealthy.
They had great barns full of grain and vast stores of everything
needful for their use and livelihood, and as they often sold their
surplus productions to other nations, they had great vaults full of
money.
But they all worked away every day, just the same as they used to,
because they were so accustomed to toil, that they would not have been
happy without work.
So, of course, they became richer and richer, and jollier and jollier
until at last they became so prosperous and happy that other nations
began to take notice of them. It was rather unusual, in those days to
see a whole nation so jolly.
The people in the adjoining countries were by no means so happy and
prosperous. Most of them were much better pleased with fighting than
with work, and it, therefore, often happened that they were hungry when
there was very little to eat.
For war is a very bad thing for crops. It is sometimes as injurious as
a long drought. For somebody must plant and hoe or there will be little
to eat in a land, and if the people spend most of their time in warfare
there cannot be much agricultural work going on.
But these outside people, especially those who lived in the land of
Voldor to the north of the country of the Cabordmen, had an idea that
it was a great deal easier to make war and capture supplies than to
raise crops themselves.
This is why, after having carefully watched the Cabordmen for some
years, and noting their great possessions, they resolved to make war
upon these industrious and jolly people.
So they gathered together an army, which was an easy thing for them to
do, and invaded the country of the Cabordmen.
Our jolly friends were much astounded and distressed when the great
army of the Voldorites marched over their borders.
[Illustration: THE VOLDORITES MARCH INTO THE COUNTRY OF THE CABORDMEN.]
Now the poor Cabordmen knew not what to do. They were not soldiers,
and, indeed, there was not so much as a single sword or spear or shield
in the whole country. They never had gone to war and they were not
prepared for it, nor did they know anything about fighting. It was
altogether a new business to them.
They gathered together and held hasty consultations, but they could
decide upon no plan to repel the invaders. What could they—a nation
of simple, jolly husbandmen—do against a great army of well armed and
practised warriors?
There seemed to be nothing left for them but to surrender at once, and
let the Voldorites help themselves to whatever they wanted. In this
case the poor Cabordmen and their families would not only be stripped
of every thing, but it was very likely indeed that the invaders would
carry off many of them as prisoners, and take them to Voldor, and make
them cultivate the land of their captors.
This was terrible to think of. But they could devise no plan to escape
this dreadful fate.
The Voldorites were now encamped upon the northern edge of their
territory, which was yet uninhabited and barren. The enemy so far had
met with none of the Cabordmen, but many of the latter had seen the
great army from afar without having made themselves visible.
Night came on while the people were in this fearful condition of fear
and suspense. Less than a day’s march would bring the fierce enemy into
their midst. No one went to bed, for who could sleep at such a time? No
fires or lamps were lighted. They all gathered together by the faint
light of the new moon, and bewailed their sad condition.
There was only one person among them who seemed to have retained his
courage and thoughtfulness. This was a young man named Adar Gan Ip.
He was named Adar because he was a painter. Ip was his family name, and
he was called Gan after his grandfather. He was the only painter in the
whole nation, and he had learned his trade in a neighboring country,
where he had been to sell grain.
He principally painted signs and portraits. He did not paint many
portraits, because the people had but little time to sit for them, but
he painted a good many signs on barns and granaries. People liked to
have their names on their barns. He had no paint but one pot of white
paint. So when he painted portraits he painted only old men, so that
the white paint would do for their hair and beards as well as for their
faces. Having no colored paint for eyes, he always painted portraits
with the faces turned around, so that the eyes could not be seen.
This young man was, as I have said, the only person among the Cabordmen
who seemed to have his wits about him.
He conceived a plan of safety, and lost no time in putting it in
execution.
The Cabordmen placed great confidence in him because of the excellence
of his portraits, and so when he told them his plan—or that part of it
which they were to carry out—they agreed to it at once.
What they were to do was very simple; each person was to take two days’
provision, and to clear out of the country, every man, woman, and child
of them. They were to march away as fast as they could over the south
border, and to stay there until they heard from Adar Ip. They were to
take nothing with them but their two days’ provision and the clothes
they wore, which were generally scanty, as the climate was mild, and
were to leave their houses and fields, and everything just as they were
at that time. Doors all open, and everything lying where it had been
last used.
So up got every man, woman and child, took food for two days, and
departed, leaving Adar Ip behind. They were all great walkers, being so
accustomed to activity in the field, and before morning they had all
passed out of sight over the south border of the land.
Then with his pot of white paint in one hand, and his brush in the
other, went Adar Ip, at the first peep of day, to the grave-yards of
the Cabordmen. There were three of these, not very far from the centre
of their country, which was a small country as you may well imagine.
The Cabordmen, being very healthy, seldom died of any disease but old
age; and there were not very many persons buried in the three grave
yards. In the first, and largest, there were seventy-two graves; in the
second, forty-one, and the third, a new one, only thirteen. The graves
were all leveled and sodded over, so that the surface of the grave yard
seemed like a beautiful lawn.
In one enclosure were the grandfathers, in another the grandmothers,
and in the third the very old maids and bachelors who had died. There
were no grave-stones or anything of the kind, but at the gate of each
enclosure was a board, stating how many persons were buried therein.
Every time it was necessary, which was very seldom, Adar Ip painted out
the old number on the board and put in a new one.
When our young painter reached the first grave yard he quickly painted
three ciphers after the figures on the board by the gate. Then running
to the second enclosure he painted a three and two ciphers on that
board, and on the third, he painted a six and a five and a four after
the figures that were already there. Then he hurried away and hid
himself.
In the course of the morning the Voldorite army reached the settlements
of the Cabordmen. They did not stop long at the first houses, but
hurried on, carefully looking out on every side for some sign of
resistance from the people. But they saw no such sign, and they saw no
people. This naturally surprised them very much. And the farther they
went the more they were surprised.
At last the leaders ordered a halt, and gathered together for
consultation.
“I cannot imagine,” said the chief, “what this means. We must look out
for some ambush or trap. By the way, has any one seen any of these
Cabordmen?”
Careful inquiries were made, but no one had seen a Cabordman since they
had entered the country,
“This is indeed remarkable,” said the chief of the Voldorites. “I
cannot imagine what it means. No ambush has been discovered, no
fortifications, no people. The houses are all open. Everything seems
as if no enemy were expected. All their valuables are here. Where are
they?”
Nobody knew, but just then a man who had been in the vicinity of the
grave-yards came running to the place where the officers were gathered
together, and he urged them to come back with him and see what he had
seen.
They all followed him, and when they saw the boards at the entrance of
the enclosures they were utterly astounded.
“What!” cried the chief, walking from one enclosure to another, “Here
lie buried seventy-two thousand Cabordmen, and here forty-one thousand
and three hundred Cabordwomen, and here thirteen thousand, six hundred
and fifty-four unmarried Cabordmen and women! Comrades, we have found
them! The whole nation lies buried here!”
A deep silence fell upon the group of officers, and upon the vast body
of soldiers that had gathered around them.
At length the chief spoke again:
“It must have been a terrible pestilence,” he said. “The whole nation
lies buried here. I have added up these figures. I know there were
not more than one hundred and twenty-six thousand nine hundred and
fifty-four of them all put together. They are all dead and buried here.
It must have been awful!”
Some of the officers and soldiers then began to whisper together.
Then some one said out loud that this must be a dreadfully unhealthy
country. Then some of them began to move away as if they were going to
the rear to attend to something important in that direction. Then the
chief mounted his horse and rode away, and in ten minutes that whole
army made up its mind that it would be exceedingly imprudent to remain
any longer in such an unwholesome country, and away they all marched
towards Voldor.
The farther they went the more frightened they became, and soon a
perfect panic pervaded the army, and they set off at the top of their
speed, horsemen and footmen for their own barren but salubrious land.
[Illustration: THE FLIGHT OF THE VOLDORITES.]
Away they went over the hills and the plains, and in two hours there
was not a Voldorite in the land of the Cabordmen.
Then uprose Adar Ip, and fled towards the southern border to inform his
countrymen of their happy deliverance.
They all returned quickly and found everything as it had been left.
Nothing had been taken, for none of the invaders wanted anything that
had been in a land where such a terrible mortality had prevailed.
Great was the joy and great the gratitude exhibited towards the
ingenious young Ip. The people presented him with a well filled
granary, and ordered him to paint on its walls at the public expense,
the history of his exploit.
“I wonder,” said one old man, “who they thought buried all these
people, if everybody was dead.”
“I don’t know,” said Adar Ip. “But I think that they had such a high
opinion of the industry and prudence of our people that they supposed
we had doubtless made suitable arrangements for a contingency of this
kind.”
After this, the Cabordmen were never again disturbed, and they became
jollier than ever.
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 257 Changed: shelter of the Esquimax snow houses
to: shelter of the Esquimaux snow houses
pg 272 Changed: The small volcanes are more active
to: The small volcanoes are more active