Swiss Family Robinson

bushes, and bramble bushes, but by grafting on these, fine apples, filberts, and raspberries were produced, and it was the same in our own dear Switzerland--all our fruit trees were imported.'
    `Were cherries, father? May we not even call cherries Swiss? I always thought they grew nowhere else.'
    `I am afraid we cannot even claim cherries as our own, not even the name of them; they are called cherries from Cerasus , a state of Pontus, in Asia, whence they were brought to Europe by Lucullus , a Roman general, about seventy years before Christ.
    `Hazelnuts also come from Pontus ; walnuts, again, came originally from Persia . As for grapes, they are of the greatest antiquity. We hear , if you remember, of Noah cultivating vines, and they have been brought from one place to another until they now are to be found in most parts of the civilized world.'
    `Do you think all these trees will grow?' asked Fritz, as we crossed Jackal River and entered our plantation at Tentholm . `Here are lemons, pomegranates, pistachio nuts, and mulberries.'
    `I have little doubt of it,' I replied, `we are evidently within the tropics, where such trees as these are sure to flourish.
    `These pines, now, come from France , Spain , and Italy ; the olives from Armenia and Palestine ; the figs originally from the island of Chios ; the preaches and apricots from Persia ; plums from Damascus in Syria , and the pears of all sorts from Greece .
    `However, if our countries have not been blessed in the same way with fruit, we have been given wisdom and skill, which has enabled us to import and cultivate the trees of other lands.'
    We thus talked and worked until every tree that required the treatment was provided with a stout bamboo prop, and then, with appetites which a gourmand might well have envied, we returned to Falconhurst .
    I think my good wife was almost alarmed at the way we fell upon the corned beef and palm-cabbage she set before us, but at length these good things produced the desired effect, and one after another declared himself satisfied. As we sat reclining after our labour and digesting our dinner we discussed the various projects we had in contemplation.
    `I wish,' said my wife, `that you would invent some other plan for climbing to the nest above us; I think that the nest itself is perfect, I really wish for nothing better, but I should like to be able to get to it without scaling that dreadful ladder every time; could you not make a flight of steps to reach it?'
    I carefully thought over the project, and turned over every plan for its accomplishment.
    `It would be impossible, I am afraid,' said I, `to make stairs outside, but within the trunk it might be done. More than once have I thought that this trunk might be hollow or partly so, and if such be the case our task would be comparatively easy. Did you not tell me the other day that you noticed bees coming from a hole in the tree?'
    `Oh, yes,' said little Franz, `and I went to look at them and one flew right against my face and stung me, and I almost cried, but I didn't.'
    `Brave little boy,' said I. `Well, now, if the trunk be sufficiently hollow to contain a swarm of bees, it may be for all we can tell hollow the greater part of its length, for like the willow in our own country it might draw all its nourishment through the bark, and in spite of its real unsoundness retain a flourishing appearance.'
    Master Jack, practical as usual, instantly sprang to his feet to put my conjecture to the proof. The rest followed his example, and they were all soon climbing about like squirrels peeping into the hole, and tapping the wood to discover by sound how far down the cavity extended.
    They forgot, in their eagerness, who were the tenants of this interesting trunk. They were soon reminded of it, however, for the bees, disturbed by this unusual noise, with an angry buzz burst out and in an instant attacked the causers of the annoyance; they swarmed round them, stung them on the hands, face, and neck, settled in their hair, and pursued them as they ran to me for assistance.
    It was with difficulty that we got rid of the angry insects, and were able to attend to the boys. Jack, who had been the first to reach the hole, had fared the worst and was soon a most pitiable sight, his face swelled to an extraordinary degree, and it was only by the constant application of cold earth that the pain was alleviated. They were all eager to commence an organized attack upon the bees at once, but for an