ss,
and might have been a resource for us, but the large, hard grain was so
very difficult to reduce to flour fine enough for dough. Fritz often
recurred to the necessity of building a mill near the cascade at Tent
House; but this was not the work of a moment, and we had time to
consider of it; for at present we had no corn to grind. As I found
Francis had let his brothers into all our secrets, it was agreed that I,
with Fritz, Jack, and Francis, should proceed to Tent House next
morning. Francis desired to be of the party, that he might direct the
laying out of the garden, he said, with an important air, as he had been
his mother's assistant on its formation. We arranged our bag of
vegetable-seeds, and having bathed my wife's foot with a simple
embrocation, we offered our united prayers, and retired to our beds to
prepare ourselves for the toils of the next day.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXIX.

We rose early; and, after our usual morning duties, we left our invalids
for the whole day, taking with us, for our dinner, a goose and some
potatoes, made ready the evening before. We harnessed the bull and the
buffalo to the cart, and I sent Fritz and Jack to the wood of bamboos,
with orders to load the cart with as many as it would contain; and,
especially, to select some very thick ones for my colonnade; the rest I
intended for props for my young trees; and this I proposed to be my
first undertaking. Francis would have preferred beginning with the
_Franciade_, or the garden, but he was finally won over by the thoughts
of the delicious fruits, which we might lose by our neglect; the
peaches, plums, pears, and, above all, the cherries, of which he was
very fond. He then consented to assist me in holding the trees whilst I
replaced the roots; after which he went to cut the reeds to tie them.
Suddenly I heard him cry, "Papa, papa, here is a large chest come for
us; come and take it." I ran to him, and saw it was the very chest we
had seen floating, and which we had taken for the boat at a distance;
the waves had left it in our bay, entangled in the reeds, which grew
abundantly here. It was almost buried in the sand. We could not remove
it alone, and, notwithstanding our curiosity, we were compelled to wait
for the arrival of my sons. We returned to our work, and it was pretty
well advanced when the tired and hungry party returned with their
cart-load of bamboos. We rested, and sat down to eat o