I had long had a mind to build a boat, and here I at last came on a
tree that would suit. Fritz and I went for a mile or two in search of
what we could find, and by the time we came back my wife had put up our
tent for the night. We then all sat down to sup, and went to rest on
beds made of the bags of the white down that we brought from the trees
on the plain.

The next day we rose at dawn. The trees which were to form the frame of
our farm house stood on a piece of land eight yards long by five wide.
I made a deep cut in each of the trunks, ten feet from the ground, and
put up cross beams to form a roof, on which we laid some bark in such a
way that the rain would run off.

We were hard at work for some days at the Farm House. The
walls we built of thin laths and long reeds, wove close for six feet
from the ground, but the rest we made of thin cross bars to let in both
light and air. We made racks to store bay and such like food for the
live stock, and put by some grain for the fowls, for our plan was to
come from time to time to feed them, till they got used to the place.

Our work took us more time than we thought; and as our store of food
got low, we sent Fritz and Jack home to bring us a fresh stock, and to
feed the beasts we had left at Tent House.

While they were gone, Ernest and I made a tour of the woods for some
miles round the new Farm. We first took the course of the stream that
ran by the foot of the hill. Some way up we came to a marsh on the edge
of a small lake, and here in the swamp grew a kind of wild rice, now
ripe on the stalk, round which flew flocks of birds. We shot five or
six of these, and I was glad to note the skill with which Ernest now