tables, which I secured for
my little Francis. I perceived, also, that they had dismounted my cart,
and carried away the wheels, from which I concluded that they had met
with some tree in their walk the preceding evening, suitable for the
pipes for their fountains, and that they had now returned to cut it
down, and convey it to Tent House. As I did not know where to meet with
them, I proceeded with Francis on the ass to commence his favourite
work. I drew my plan on the ground first. At the distance of twelve feet
from the rock which formed the front of our house, I marked a straight
line of fifty feet, which I divided into ten spaces of five feet each
for my colonnade; the two ends were to be reserved for the two pavilions
my sons wished to build. I was busy in my calculations, and Francis
placing stakes in the places where I wished to dig, when the cart drove
up with our two good labourers. They had, as I expected, found the
evening before a species of pine, well adapted for their pipes. They had
cut down four, of fifteen or twenty feet in length, which they had
brought on the wheels of the cart, drawn by the four animals. They had
had some difficulty in transporting them to the place; and the greatest
still remained--the boring the trunks, and then uniting them firmly. I
had neither augers nor any tools fit for the purpose. I had, certainly,
constructed a little fountain at Falcon's Nest; but the stream was near
at hand, and was easily conveyed by cane pipes to our tortoise-shell
basin. Here the distance was considerable, the ground unequal, and, to
have the water pure and cool, underground pipes were necessary. I
thought of large bamboos, but Fritz pointed out the knots, and the
difficulty of joining the pieces, and begged me to leave it to him, as
he had seen fountains made in Switzerland, and had no fears of success.
In the mean time, all hands set to work at the arcade. We selected
twelve bamboos of equal height and thickness, and fixed them securely in
the earth, at five feet from each other. These formed a pretty
colonnade, and were work enough for one day.

We took care to divert all inquiries at night, by discussing the
subjects which our invalids had been reading during the day. The little
library of our captain was very choice; besides the voyages and travels,
which interested them greatly, there was a good collection of
historians, and some of the best poets, for which Ernest had no little
taste. However,