Swiss Family Robinson

ravages of the great unknown. The cane-brake had, without doubt, been visited by an elephant. That great animal alone could have left such traces and committed such fearful ravages.
    Thick posts in the barricade were snapped across like reeds; the trees in the vicinity, where we planned to build a cool summer-house, were stripped of leaves and branches to a great height, but the worst mischief was done among the young sugar-cane plants, which were all either devoured or trampled down and destroyed.
    It seemed to me that not one elephant, but a troop must have invaded our grounds. The tracks were very numerous, and the footprints of various sizes; but, to my satisfaction, I saw that they could be traced not only from the Gap, but back to it in evidently equal numbers.
    We did not, therefore, suppose that the mighty animals remained hidden in the woods of our territory; but concluded that, after this freebooting incursion, they had withdrawn to their native wilds, where, by greatly increasing the strength of our ramparts, we hoped henceforth to oblige them to remain.
    In what manner to effect this we laid many plans, during the night of my arrival, when, sitting by an enormous watch-fire, I chatted with my boys, and heard details of their numerous adventures, so interesting for them to relate, and for me to hear, that everyone was more disposed to act sentinel than retire to sleep.
    My wife and Ernest arrived next day, and she rejoiced to find all well, making light of trodden fields and trampled sugar-canes, since her sons were sound in life and limb.
    A systematic scheme of defence was now elabourated , and the erection of the barricade occupied us for at least a month, as it was to be a firm and durable building, proof against all invasion .
    As our little tent was unsuited to a long residence of this sort, I adopted Fritz's idea of a Kamschatkan dwelling and, to his great delight, forthwith carried it out.
    Instead of planting four posts, on which to place a platform, we chose four trees of equal size, which, in a very suitable place, grew exactly in a square, twelve or fourteen feet apart. Between these, at about twenty feet from the ground, we laid a flooring of beams and bamboo, smoothly and strongly planked. From this rose, on all four sides, walls of cane; the frame of the roof was covered so effectually by large pieces of bark that no rain could penetrate. The staircase to this tree-cottage was simply a broad plank with bars nailed across it for steps. The flooring projected like a balcony in front of the entrance door, and underneath, on the ground, we fitted up sheds for cattle and fowls.
    Various ornaments in Chinese or Japanese style were added to the roof and eaves, and a most convenient, cool and picturesque cottage, overhung and adorned by the graceful foliage of the trees, was the result of our ingenuity.
    I was pleased to find that the various birds taken by the boys during this excursion seemed likely to thrive; they were the first inmates of the new sheds, and even the black swans and cranes soon became tame and sociable.
    Constantly roaming through the woods, the children often made new discoveries.
    Fritz brought one day, after an excursion to the opposite side of the stream beyond the Gap, a cluster of bananas, and also of cacao-beans, from which chocolate is made.
    The banana, although valuable and nourishing food for the natives of the tropical countries where it grows, is not generally liked by Europeans, and probably this variety was even inferior to many others, for we found the fruit much like rotten pears, and almost uneatable.
    The cacao seeds tasted exceedingly bitter, and it seemed wonderful that by preparation they should produce anything so delicious as chocolate.
    My wife, who now fancied no manufacture beyond my skill, begged for plants, seeds, or cuttings to propagate in her nursery garden, already fancying herself in the enjoyment of chocolate for breakfast, and I promised to make a cacao plantation near home.
    `Let me have bananas also,' said she, `for we may acquire a taste for that celebrated fruit, and, at all events, I am sure I can make it into an excellent preserve.'
    The day before our return to Rockburg , Fritz went again to the inland region beyond the river to obtain a large supply of young banana-plants, and the cacao-fruit. He took the cajack , and a bundle of reeds to float behind him as a raft to carry the fruit, plants, and anything else he might wish to bring