baker. Give me the plates of iron and the graters we brought yesterday."
My wife was astonished; but I requested her to wait patiently and she
should have bread, not perhaps light buns, but eatable flat cakes. But
first she was to make me two small bags of sailcloth. She obeyed me;
but, at the same time, I observed she put the potatoes on the fire, a
proof she had not much faith in my bread-making. I then spread a cloth
over the ground, and, giving each of the boys a grater, we began to
grate the carefully-washed manioc roots, resting the end on the cloth.
In a short time we had a heap of what appeared to be moist white
sawdust; certainly not tempting to the appetite; but the little workmen
were amused with their labour, and jested no little about the cakes made
of scraped radishes.

"Laugh now, boys," said I; "we shall see, after a while. But you,
Ernest, ought to know that the manioc is one of the most precious of
alimentary roots, forming the principal sustenance of many nations of
America, and often preferred by Europeans, who inhabit those countries,
to wheaten bread."

When all the roots were grated, I filled the two bags closely with the
pollard, and my wife sewed the ends up firmly. It was now necessary to
apply strong pressure to extract the juice from the root, as this juice
is a deadly poison. I selected an oak beam, one end of which we fixed
between the roots of our tree; beneath this I placed our bags on a row
of little blocks of wood; I then took a large bough, which I had cut
from a tree, and prepared for the purpose, and laid it across them. We
all united then in drawing down the opposite end of the plank over the
bough, till we got it to a certain point, when we suspended to it the
heaviest substances we possessed; hammers, bars of iron, and masses of
lead. This acting upon the manioc, the sap burst through the cloth, and
flowed on the ground copiously. When I thought the pressure was
complete, we relieved the bags from the lever, and opening one, drew out
a handful of the pollard, still rather moist, resembling coarse
maize-flour.

"It only wants a little heat to complete our success," said I, in great
delight. I ordered a fire to be lighted, and fixing one of our iron
plates, which was round in form, and rather concave, on two stones
placed on each side of the fire, I covered it with the flour which we
took from the bag with a small wooden shovel. It soon formed a solid
cake, which we turned, that