and planks which formed the floor of the jangada, and rose about
thirty inches above the load water-line. The bulk was enormous, as we
must confess when it is considered that the raft measured a thousand
feet long and sixty broad, and thus had a superificies of sixty
thousand square feet. They were, in fact, about to commit a whole
forest to the Amazon.

The work of building was conducted under the immediate direction of
Joam Garral. But when that part was finished the question of
arrangement was submitted to the discussion of all, including even
the gallant Fragoso.

Just a word as to what he was doing in his new situation at the
fazenda.

The barber had never been so happy as since the day when he had been
received by the hospitable family. Joam Garral had offered to take
him to Para, on the road to which he was when the liana, according to
his account, had seized him by the neck and brought him up with a
round turn. Fragoso had accepted the offer, thanked him from the
bottom of his heart, and ever since had sought to make himself useful
in a thousand ways. He was a very intelligent fellow--what one might
call a "double right-hander"--that is to say, he could do everything,
and could do everything well. As merry as Lina, always singing, and
always ready with some good-natured joke, he was not long in being
liked by all.

But it was with the young mulatto that he claimed to have contracted
the heaviest obligation.