Swiss Family Robinson

life of a man is a more exalted action than contributing to the comfort of a few quadrupeds, whom we have already supplied with food for a few days. Also, the sea is so calm at present that we need not fear that the ship will sink or break up entirely before we can return.'
    Thus talking, we pushed on until we came to a pleasant grove which stretched down to the water's edge; here we halted to rest, seating ourselves under a large tree, by a rivulet which murmured and splashed along its pebbly bed into the great ocean before us.
    A thousand gaily plumaged birds flew twittering above us, and Fritz and I gazed up at them. My son suddenly started up. `A monkey,' he exclaimed, `I am nearly sure I saw a monkey.'
    As he spoke he sprang round to the other side of the tree, and in doing so stumbled over a small round object which he handed to me, remarking, as he did so, that it was a round bird's nest, of which he had often heard.
    `You may have done so,' said I, laughing, `but you need not necessarily conclude that every round hairy thing is a bird's nest; this, for instance, is not one, but a cocoanut. Do you not remember reading that a cocoanut is enclosed within a round, fibrous covering over a hard shell, which again is surrounded by a bulky green hull? In the one you hold in your hand, the outer hull has been destroyed by time, which is the reason that the twisted fibers of the inner covering are so apparent. Let us now break the shell, and you will see the nut inside.'
    Not without difficulty, we split open the nut, but, to our disgust, found the kernel dry and uneatable.
    `Hullo,' cried Fritz, `I always thought a cocoanut was full of delicious sweet liquid, like almond milk.'
    `So it is,' I replied, `when young and fresh, but as it ripens the milk becomes congealed, and in course of time is solidified into a kernel. This kernel then dries as you see here, but when the nut falls on favourable soil, the germ within the kernel swells until it bursts through the shell, and, taking root, springs up a new tree.'
    `I do not understand,' said Fritz, `how the little germ manages to get through this great thick shell, which is not like an almond or hazel-nut shell, that is divided down the middle already.'
    `Nature provides for all things,' I answered, taking up the pieces. `Look here, do you see these three round holes near the stalk; it is through them that the germ obtains egress. Now let us find a good nut if we can.'
    As cocoanuts must be over-ripe before they fall naturally from the tree, it was not without difficulty that we obtained one in which the kernel was not dried up. It was a little oily and rancid, but this was not the time to be too particular. We were so refreshed by the fruit that we could defer the repast we called our dinner* until later in the day, and so spare our stock of provisions.
    * In this book, 'dinner' refers to the midday meal.
    Continuing our way through a thicket, which was so densely overgrown with lianas that we had to clear a passage with our hatchets, we again emerged on the seashore beyond, and found an open view, the forest sweeping inland, while on the space before us stood at intervals single trees of remarkable appearance. These at once attracted Fritz's observant eye, and he pointed to them, exclaiming: `Oh, what absurd-looking trees, father! See what strange bumps there are on the trunks.'
    We approached to examine them, and I recognized them as calabash trees, the fruit of which grows in this curious way on the stems, and is a species of gourd, from the hard rind of which bowls, spoons, and bottles can be made. `The savages,' I remarked, `are said to form these things most ingeniously, using them to contain liquids: indeed, they actually cook food in them.'
    `Oh, but that is impossible,' returned Fritz. `I am quite sure this rind would be burnt through directly if it was set on the fire.'
    `I did not say it was set on the fire at all. When the gourd has been divided in two, and the shell or rind emptied of its contents, it is filled with water, into which the fish, or whatever is to be cooked, is put; red-hot stones are added until the water boils; the food becomes fit to eat, and the gourd-rind remains uninjured.'
    `That is a very clever plan: very simple too. I daresay I should have hit on it, if I had tried,' said Fritz.
    `The friends of Columbus thought it very easy to make an egg stand upon its end when he had shown them how to do it. But now suppose we prepare some of these