waked by the songs of the birds. How delighted I was to have escaped
the noise of the waves, and to feel the freshness of the woods, and the
perfume of the flowers, with which my children made garlands, to
decorate my head and their own! These ornaments, during this time of
mourning and bereavement, affected me painfully, and I was weak enough
to forbid them this innocent pleasure; I tore away my garland, and threw
it into the rivulet. 'Gather flowers,' said I, 'but do not dress
yourselves in them; they are no fitting ornaments for us; your father
and Alfred cannot see them.' They were silent and sad, and threw their
garlands into the water, as I had done.

"We followed the stream, and passed two more nights under the trees. We
had the good fortune to find more figs; but they did not satisfy us, and
our eggs were exhausted. In my distress I almost decided to return to
the shore, where we might at least meet with that nourishment. As I sat
by the stream, reflecting mournfully on our situation, the children, who
had been throwing stones into the water, cried out, 'Look, mamma, what
pretty fishes!' I saw, indeed, a quantity of small salmon-trout in the
river; but how could I take them? I tried to seize them with my hands,
but could not catch them; necessity, however, is the mother of
invention. I cut a number of branches with my knife, and wove them
together to make a kind of light hurdle, the breadth of the stream,
which was very narrow just here. I made two of these; my daughters
assisted me, and were soon very skilful. We then undressed ourselves,
and took a bath, which refreshed us much. I placed one of my hurdles
upright across the rivulet, and the second a little lower. The fishes
who remained between attempted to pass, but the hurdles were woven too
close. We watched for them attempting the other passage; many escaped
us, but we captured sufficient for our dinner. We threw them out upon
the grass, at a distance from the stream, so that they could not leap
back. My daughters had taken more than I; but the sensible Sophia threw
back those we did not require, to give them pleasure, she said, and
Matilda did the same, to see them leap. We then removed our hurdles,
dressed ourselves, and I began to consider how I should cook my fish;
for I had no fire, and had never kindled one myself. However, I had
often seen Mr. Hirtel, who was a smoker, light his pipe by means of the
flint and steel; they were in the precious morocco