age.
Leaving her busily at work on this, he went down to the nearest bamboo
thicket and cut a stout cane. It took some time to cut, for the bamboo
was hard and the knife small for such work. From the end of the cane he
cut off a piece about a foot in length.

"Now, Otto, my boy, you split that into four pieces, and sharpen the end
of each piece, while I cut off another foot of the bamboo."

"But what are you going to do with these bits of stick?" asked Otto, as
he went to work with a will.

"You shall see. No use in wasting time with explanations just now. I
read of the plan in a book of travels. There's nothing like a good book
of travels to put one up to numerous dodges."

"I'm not so sure o' that," objected the boy. "I have read _Robinson
Crusoe_ over and over, and over again, and I don't recollect reading of
his having made use of pegs to climb trees with."

"Your memory may be at fault, perhaps. Besides, Robinson's is not the
only book of travels in the world," returned Dominick, as he hacked away
at the stout bamboo.

"No; but it is certainly the best," returned Otto, with enthusiasm, "and
I mean to imitate its hero."

"Don't do that, my boy," said Dominick; "whatever you do, don't imitate.
Act well the part allotted to you, whatever it may be, according to the
promptings of your own particular nature; but don't imitate."

"Humph! I won't be guided by your wise notions, Mr Premier. All I
know is, that I wish my clothes would wear out faster, so that I might
dress myself in skins of some sort. I would have made an umbrella by
this time, but it never seems to rain in this country."

"Ha! Wait till the rainy season comes round, and you'll have more than
enough of it. Come, we've got enough of pegs to begin with. Go into
the thicket now; cut some of the longest bamboos you can find, and bring
them to me; six or eight will do--slender ones, about twice the
thickness of my thumb at the ground."

While Otto was engaged in obeying this order, his brother returned to
the signal-tree.

"Well done, Pina," he said; "you've made some capital cordage."

"What are you going to do now, brother?"

"You shall see," said Dominick, picking up a heavy stone to use as a
hammer, with which he drove one of the hard, sharp pegs into the tree,
at about three feet from the ground. We have said the peg was a foot
long. As he fixed it in the tree about three inches deep, nine inches
of it projected. On this he