branch of the tree, and fed with small birds. It took him a long while
to tame, but in time he taught it to perch on his wrist, and to feed
from his hand. He once let it go, and thought he would have lost it,
but the bird knew it had a good friend, for it came back to the tree at
night. From that time it was left free, though we thought that some day
its love of war and wild sports would tempt it to leave us for the
rocks of the sea shore, where Fritz had first found it.

Each of my boys had now some pet to take care of, and, I may say, to
tease, for they all thought they had a fair right to get some fun out
of the pets they could call their own; but they were kind to them, fed
them well, and kept them clean.

In what I may term my spare time, which was when I left off work out of
doors, I made a pair of gum shoes for each of my sons, in the way I had
told Fritz it could be done. I do not know what we should have done had
we not found the gum tree, for the stones soon wore out the boots we
had, and we could not have gone through the woods or trod the hard
rocks with bare feet.

By this time our sow had brought forth ten young pigs, and the hens had
each a brood of fine chicks. Some we kept near us, but most of them
went to the wood, where my wife said she could find them when she had
need to use them.

I knew the time must now be near when, in this clime, the rain comes
down day by day for weeks, and that it would wash us out of The Nest if
we did not make a good roof to our house. Then our live stock would
need some place where they could rest out of the rain. The thatch for
The Nest was of course our first care; then we made a long roof of