It fortunately happened that we had so much to do we could not weep all
day; moreover, Jenny, who was very methodical, thought if we went on
crying all the evening, how was she to get the tea ready. Accordingly,
with some hesitation, having shewn her face several times before, she
ventured to enquire if she might take away the remains of our feast. On
this we all roused up, and bestirred ourselves; the girls helped to wash
up; the little ones ran out to amuse themselves; I swept the floor,
while Schillie put the room tidy; Madame having gone to lay down to cure
her sad headache. We then all went down to the sea to bathe and enjoy
the cool breeze, and at night we went to bed sorrowful but thankful for
the many mercies above, around, about us.
On the morrow, lessons were to begin seriously, and some seemed to think
it almost a hanging matter, so doleful did they look. They were to have
that part of the room nearest the door, as being lighter and more airy.
The maids had the rest of the room for laying the meals, while Schillie
and I had to dispose of ourselves any way we could, so it was out of the
way.
We had a long conversation on this particular morning, which I began by
saying, "We must now begin to think of making discoveries, and storing
food against the rainy weather."
_Schillie._--"Good woman, how fidgety you are. I do think you might
allow me a little rest after building that horrid house and labouring so
hard."
_Mother._--"But we shall look so silly if we have nothing to eat, and it
is impossible to get out during the wet weather."
_Schillie._--"That's granted, I cannot abide wet weather."
_Mother._--"Then making discoveries is your principal delight; and you
may combine amusement and use together."
_Schillie._--"A thing I abominate. I hate joining two things, and I
cannot be amused when all the time I am thinking I am so useful."
_Mother._--"Then sit down here, while I go and perpetrate this horrid
crime!"
_Schillie._--"Now, June, you are going too far, as if I would suffer you
to stir a yard without me; you will be tumbling over some precipice, get
eaten up by a huge turtle, or light on another great snake. Now, come
along, what's the first discovery we are to make?"
_Mother._--"That's more than I can settle, because I am quite in the
dark at present about what we require. But, if you must have a decided
answer, pray discover some shoes and boots."
_Schillie._--"Now you must talk common sense if you mean me to help you.
I heard that little demure Jenny, who thinks of nothing but the
children, coming to you this morning with a complaint about the number
of holes in her darling's only pair of shoes."
_Mother._--"Oh but she brought in her apron the whole establishment of
young boots and shoes, that I might see the dilapidated condition in
which they were."
_Schillie._--"And what did you say to that?"
_Mother._--"I looked at her gravely and said, 'Then Jenny, order the
carriage, and tell Goode I shall go to H---- this evening to buy boots
and shoes for the young ones.' I was sorry after I had indulged in this
joke, for first of all she looked perplexed, then she looked sorrowful,
and finally she bundled up her miserable cargo, and fled in a burst of
tears."
_Schillie._--"Then she is a greater goose than I imagined. She would
have been more sensible had she devised some means of repairing them,
without bothering you."
_Mother._--"But they are past repair."
_Schillie._--"Then she might have tried to concoct new ones."
_Mother._--"Perhaps she does not like combining amusement and business
together."
_Schillie._--"Now, June, you are too bad, and to punish you I'll not
help you a bit with your boots and shoes."
_Mother._--"Suppose we take to going without any."
_Schillie._--"Yes, and get bitten to death with these horrid scorpions,
or, look here, see how pleasant to put one's naked foot on these black
ants."
_Mother._--"Then it seems clear we must have boots and shoes."
_Schillie._--"Of course, who doubted it?"
_Mother._--"Then let us go and discover something that will somehow do
for them."
_Schillie._--"You always come round me in such a manner, that I begin to
think if you told me to do so I should be creeping out of my skin some
day."
_Mother._--"Pray don't disturb yourself with that idea, as I rather want
to clothe you than disrobe you. For our next discovery must be something
of which to make dresses."
_Schillie._--"Are you gone mad; who wants dresses, have we not enough to
last us for a year at least?"
_Mother._--"Yes, that I know, but I want to make the discovery, and get
expert in the business before our own clothes are quite gone. It will be
so awkward to have no clothes at all."
_Schillie._--"Very much so."
_Mother._--"Now do you know I have already had a great idea that this is
the palm tree, out of which they make sago. Here you see are the young
ones, small prickly shrubs, and here they are growing up into trees, and
this one that I first pointed out is covered with a whitish dust, which
I have read is an indication that the sago is ready to be taken."
_Schillie._--"You seem very learned on the subject, but are you going to
make boots and shoes out of sago?"
_Mother_ (laughing).--"No, no, I don't want to confine my discoveries
only to boots and shoes, I am for discovering everything, and I meant to
have told you of this discovery before, for I conjectured it when you
used to make me lie down to rest in this spot while you did my work."
_Schillie._--"And very lucky it is that you have some one with an ounce
of sense near you to make you rest. You don't work race horses like
carters, but a Suffolk Punch is made for use, and all the better for
it."
_Mother._--"You don't compliment yourself, Mrs. Suffolk Punch, though I
agree you do the work of the animal you liken yourself to. But I beg you
won't compare me to anything so useless as a racer, who is only required
for a few days hard labour, and then may die, having fulfilled the
purpose of filling the owner's pockets."
_Schillie._--"You know nothing about the matter. You don't suppose that
horses are bred so highly merely for running races. It is to improve the
breed of horses, and you may go to the moon and never----"
_Mother._--"Look, look, what a lovely tree!"
_Schillie._--"So it is. Let us sit down, while I fish out my book, and
discover what it is. Now then for characteristics. Why here is a picture
of it. What a nice book this is. It's a nutmeg tree. Then it may go to
the dogs, for I hate nutmegs."
_Mother._--"I don't like them either, but I have heard they are very
good preserved, and, besides, some of the others may like them, so let
us see if any are ripe. No! none at all, so it's lucky we are
indifferent about nutmegs at present."
_Schillie._--"All this shrubby stuff about here, looking something like
Jerusalem artichoke, is ginger I think."
_Mother._--"Yes, it is, so we will take some home, as it is very good
for Madame. What nice large roots it has, but I don't call it a shrub.
Shrubs are bushy things."
_Schillie._--"Call it what you like, so we may have some preserved. I
could eat it for breakfast, dinner, and tea. Now, here are your boots
and shoes growing on this Ita palm. Look, my knowing little book says
the leaves are enclosed in cases, which serve for shoes, and this is the
exact description of these tall fellows. Now, June, if we can only take
some home to Jenny she will be as pleased as Punch, and so shall I, for
I did not think your fidgetiness would end in such a fine encouraging
manner."
_Mother._--"But, good lack, as you say, how are we ever to get at them;
this tree must be at least a hundred feet high, and all the others seem
bigger, and all the leaves are at the top; almost sky-high they look."
_Schillie._--"We must cut one down, there is no help for it. I will run
home for a couple of hatchets, and mind you don't stir from hence until
I return, and don't get eaten up, for your life, by anything."
_Mother._--"Suppose you bring the girls with you; we shall never cut it
down ourselves without aching all over, and they will be so glad to get
out of school."
_Schillie._--"I'll be bound they will. But first I shall say only those
are to come out who have been good, for the pleasure of seeing Miss
Gatty screw up her countenance into ineffable disgust, for I know she
will have been naughty."
_Mother._--"You know you will do nothing of the sort, but, on the
contrary, say that Gatty is more wanted than the others."
_Schillie._--"I confess I have a weakness for that child, she is so
preposterously mischievous."
_Mother._--"Now I have a weakness for her, because she is like the
knights of old, 'the soul of honour.' Now she fires up, and now she
ruins her pocket handkerchiefs if anything is said derogatory to her own
country or to her Queen. Did you hear or rather see her this morning
while they were reading their history, when Madame praised Napoleon
Buonaparte at the expense of the Duke of Wellington?"
_Schillie._--"Yes. I misdoubt me that I shall find her in sad disgrace.
She will have endeavoured to soothe her wounded feelings by putting
spiders on Sybil, changing Serena's book, mislaying Madame's alderman,
which is neither more nor less than the name Gatty has given that great
fat pencil with which Madame marks their books, and rat-ta-ta-tals them
up when they are looking dull and stupid."
_Mother._--"Don't come without her, however, for she is the strongest.
It's a pity Sybil is so good as never to be in disgrace, for her little
delicate fingers are of no use in such a case."
_Schillie._--"Indeed Sybil and Serena are too stupid for anything. They
learn all their books, they like all their lessons, they agree to all
Madame's crinkums crankums, and they are so horridly good, it quite puts
me out."
_Mother._--"Pooh, nonsense. If we had three Gattys here we should find
the island too hot to hold us. Be content at having two of the best
girls in the world to deal with."
_Schillie._--"I must say Serena is a tip-top girl, she makes Miss Gatty
look about her; but I must be off."
During her absence, I sat down upon an old stump of a tree, and by and
by I heard a little rustling in the bushes, out of which came a sort of
animal like a large rat, but it had a flat tail, and each side of this
tail was adorned with hair like fringe. It looked at me steadily, and,
except its tail, was not an ugly creature. I did not choose to be
frightened; but still as another and another came, and all stood
steadily gazing at me, I had a sort of qualm that some rats fly at one's
throat, and, though not really injured, I might perhaps get severely
bitten if they attacked me. I was therefore glad to hear the merry
voices in the distance coming nearer and nearer; and, as the rats heard
the unusual sounds, they slunk away as if by magic, for I could hardly
perceive the movement by which they disappeared.
_Schillie_ (quite breathless).--"Well, here you are quite safe. I am
always so afraid when I leave you that you get into some mischief. But
you have seen something, I know by your face."
_Mother._--"Then don't look as if I was injured. I have only seen some
odd-looking sorts of rats with flat tails."
_Schillie._--"Then Otty must come with his gun and shoot them, for I
dare say now that snake is dead the animals of all kinds will increase
very much. I only wish there was a snake among the gnat tribe. Anything
like the way in which I am teased by things biting me is not to be
described."
The girls were delighted with the business set before them, and even
Madame appeared with a hatchet in her delicate fingers, but without
being able to make even an apology of a stroke.
When the tree was down, we proceeded to shoe ourselves, intent upon
delighting and surprising Jenny. But we never regarded a gummy substance
exuding from all parts of the tree, which plagued us for some time
afterwards, destroying the stockings, and very, very difficult to get
off, also blistering the skin a little, but these sheathes for the
leaves of the Ita palm really made capital shoes. We had only to dry
them a little in the sun. They did not however last very long, and it
was no uncommon thing for the boys to want a new pair every day.
Notwithstanding there being such an abundance of these naturally-growing
ready-made shoes, we were not sorry at the ingenious invention of Sybil
and Serena, who, after repeated efforts, contrived to plait most
excellent shoes out of grass.
One day, penetrating a little farther than usual, we came to a rich
little glen, running down to the sea. Here, digging up some plants, as
was our usual custom, to make fresh discoveries, we found the mould of a
beautiful bright red colour; this shaded off into deep chocolate or
bright yellow. We could not discover any metallic substance in it, or
that it tasted of anything, but it painted our fingers whenever we
touched it, and when first turned up was glossy and shining. Near this
place grew some sugar canes, curiously striped, and a tree or shrub,
seven or eight feet high, with an oblong hairy pod; something like a
chestnut, hanging to it; inside were about thirty or forty seeds, buried
in a pulp of bright red colour, smelling rather fragrant. We found out
afterwards that these seeds were good for fevers, and the pulp made very
good red paint.
The tobacco plant we all knew very well. It grew in the most rank manner
here. But one of the most lovely trees we had yet discovered was one
twenty feet high, with a grey, smooth, shining trunk, apparently
destitute of bark. It had beautiful dark green leaves, with an
astonishing profusion of white flowers, so deliciously fragrant, that we
sat to the wind side of it with the greatest delight. It had berries on
it, out of which squeezed a sweet oil smelling of cloves.
We did not like the situation of our house nearly so much as on the
cliffs; we had so little air, and were so much tormented by insects of
all kinds. Some of the ant hills were at least three feet high; and upon
merely walking near them, the angry little inhabitants came swarming out
in multitudes to resent the supposed injury.
On the cactuses, which grew very large, and in a most luxuriant manner,
we discovered what we supposed were the insects for making cochineal,
but we did not think that a grand discovery, but, on the contrary,
thought the cotton plant a much greater gift.
I had been used to spin when in Scotland, having taken a fancy to the
thing. But, not all the wishes in the world could produce a spinning
wheel, so I kept my desires secret until I saw some hope of
accomplishment. Every day each person had to bring in their quota of
discoveries and additions to our larder and stores, for, though we knew
nothing about the climate we imagined ourselves looking remarkably
silly, should bad weather come on, and find us unprovided.
Taking one day as a specimen for all the rest, after three hours
exploring, in different parties, we produced our treasures, as
follows:--Madame had gathered a number of small reeds or rushes, out of
which she had concocted two very pretty and useful baskets, one of which
had been immediately appropriated by a hen. For, while she was busy
with the other, this hen thought she had never beheld so cosy a nest,
and, therefore, laid an egg in it. This was of course given to Madame,
for her supper, as a reward for her ingenuity. Schillie came dragging
with her, besides innumerable other plants and curiosities, an enormous
root, as thick as her waist.
_Schillie._--"Now then, young ones, come round and see what this is. You
see when I cut it what milky stuff flows from it."
"Yes," said they, "we see; may we not have some to put into our own tea?
It is so nasty without milk."
_Schillie._--"For goodness sake, brats, don't be so rash, it's rank
poison."
_Mother, Madame, and a whole Chorus._--"Then, what good is it to us?"
_Schillie._--"Well! don't make such a row, and you shall see. Here,
Jenny, you and some of the young ladies help me to rasp or scrape it up,
but, for your life don't let it touch the skin, or you may die, but, at
all events, you may get blisters on your hands."
_Mother_ (very cross).--"How can you be so absurd, Schillie, as to bring
such a dangerous thing amongst the children?"
_Schillie._--"Now, pray, keep yourself quiet until I have hurt one of
them. You told me to make discoveries, and this is a superb one. Now, we
have got a good heap. Fetch a cloth, Jenny, pop it in; now hold one
while I hold the other, and twist and squeeze as if Master Felix's life
depended thereon. And now behold."
So opening the cloth we discovered some nice white flowery-looking
stuff, which she declared was tapioca, and which we discovered made most
excellent bread. We really voted this discovery of the cassada root
quite a grand discovery, though I was always very fidgety about the
poisonous milk in it. But the loaves made from the flower were
delicious. She, of course, had many more things to show us, but I will
only take one from each of us. Sybil had been indefatigable in her
search for hemp, and had found a species of grass, which she had beaten
between two stones in the water, and it had spread into innumerable fine
threads, so that hers was a most valuable discovery. Serena had found a
perfect horde of turtle's eggs, besides eggs innumerable of all kinds of
birds. Gatty, we all knew, could not have discovered much, for she had
been running from one Mother to another, flying off again to the girls,
helping the little ones in innumerable difficulties, and doing anything
but minding her own duties. However, nothing undaunted, she opened an
apology for a handkerchief, and out waddled a large odd crab, for which
Schillie greatly applauded her, and said she would have him boiled for
supper. "But I have discovered something else," said Gatty, with a
mischievous twinkling of her eyes, and opening a paper box, out sprang a
horrible spider, three inches round I am sure, black and hairy, faintly
spotted. Madame and Sybil fled, the little ones shrieked, Schillie
scolded, and in the midst of the uproar the spider bolted, and peace was
restored. Zoe had discovered a beautiful species of jessamine tree, most
fragrant in smell, and on which, for a wonder, there were no insects
whatever, and she therefore supposed it must be something good.
We found out that no ants would touch the wood, so it proved very useful
to us. Winny bent and quivered under the weight of an enormous
curiously-shaped gourd, and triumphantly declared her discovery was
nearly as big as the little Mother's. "But it is no discovery, little
one," said Serena, "for we have had gourds before." "But it is a
discovery," persisted the little one, "for it is such a big fellow, and
it has a growing in and a growing out, quite unlike the others." So we
thanked her warmly, and Jenny said she was and had been undone to
possess a gourd of that very particular shape. Lilly had discovered so
many wonderful things (upon supposition) that we contented ourselves
with thanking her for some large and useful shells which would serve for
many purposes. The boys had been so intent on manufacturing fishing
lines that they had spent their time wandering vaguely about, hoping
fishing lines would fall from the skies for them, but as no such thing
happened, they had pulled long hairy lines from the cactuses, and they
had also brought in their pockets a fruit like an apple outside, but it
was full of an insipid kind of custard. Jenny had got some sand for
scouring her floors and kettles, also she said she had got a plant that
looked like one in an old book she had, from which they made soap. This
we found correct, and it proved a most valuable discovery; it was called
the soap-wort. Hargrave had contented herself with gathering the most
beautiful flowers she could see, at the same time bewailing over their
rapid destruction, only wishing that they were artificial ones that she
might ornament the young ladies' dresses. It was on this day that my
discovery consisted of the cinnamon tree. But all this will appear
tedious, so I will go on to the time when we were roused from our
discoveries, pretty walks, out-door amusements, and healthy exercise, by
a terrific thunder storm.