CHAPTER X

Construction of a Ladder

Our repast ended, I observed to my wife that we should be obliged to pass the night on the ground. I desired her to begin preparing the harness for the animals, that they might go to the seashore, and fetch pieces of wood, or other articles which might be useful to us. I, in the meantime, set about suspending our hammocks to some of the arched roots of the trees. I next spread a piece of sail-cloth large enough to cover them, to preserve us from the dew, and from the insects. I then hastened with the two eldest boys to the seashore, to choose out such pieces of wood as were most proper for the steps of my ladder. Ernest was so lucky as to discover some bamboo canes in a sort of bog. I took them out, and, with his assistance, completely cleared them from the dirt; and stripping off their leaves, I found, to my great joy, that they were precisely what I wanted. I then instantly began to cut them with my hatchet, in pieces of four or five feet long; the boys bound them together in faggots, and we prepared to return with them to our place of abode. I next secured some of the straight and most slender of the stalks, to make some arrows with, of which I knew I should stand in need. At some distance from the place where we stood, I perceived a sort of thicket, in which I hoped to find some young pliant twigs, which I thought might also be useful to me: we proceeded to the spot; but apprehending it might be the retreat of some dangerous reptile or animal, we held our guns in readiness. Flora, who had accompanied us, went before. We had hardly reached the thicket before she made several jumps, and threw herself furiously into the middle of the bushes; when a troop of large-sized flamingoes sprang out, and with a loud rustling noise mounted into the air. Fritz fired, when two of the birds fell among the bushes: one of them was quite dead; the other was only slightly wounded in the wing, and finding that he could not fly, he ran so fast towards the water, that we were afraid he would escape us. Fritz, in the joy of his heart, plunged up to his knees in the water, to pick up the flamingo he had killed, and with great difficulty was able to get out again; while I, warned by his example, proceeded more cautiously in my pursuit of the wounded bird. Flora came to my assistance, and running on before, caught hold of the flamingo, and held him fast till I reached the spot, and took him into my protection. All this was effected with considerable trouble; for the bird made a stout resistance, flapping its wing with violence for some time. But at last I succeeded in securing him.

Fritz was not long in extricating himself from the swamp; he now appeared holding the dead flamingo by the feet: but I had more trouble in the care of mine, as I had a great desire to preserve him alive. I had tied his feet and his wings with my handkerchief; notwithstanding which, he still continued to flutter about to a distressing degree, and tried to make his escape. I held the flamingo under my left arm, and my gun in my right hand. I made the best jumps I was able to get to the boys, but the risk of sinking every moment in the mud, which was extremely deep, and from which it would have been difficult to release me.

I now selected some of the oldest of the stalks of bamboo, and cut from them their hard pointed ends, to serve for the tips of my arrows. Lastly, I looked for two of the longest canes, which I cut, for the purpose of measuring the height of our giant tree, about which I felt so deep an interest. When I told my sons the use I intended to make of the two longest canes, they indulged themselves in a hearty laugh at me, and maintained that, though I should lay ten such canes up the trunk of the tree, the last would not reach even the lowest branch. I requested they would oblige me by having a little patience. We now thought of returning. Ernest took the charge of the canes; Fritz carried the dead flamingo, and I resumed the care of the living one.

We at length arrived once more at our giant trees, and were received with a thousand expressions of interest and kindness. All were delighted at the sight of our new captures. My wife, with her usual anxiety about the means for subsisting, asked where we should get food enough for all the animals we brought home?—“You should consider,” said I, “that some of them feed us, instead of being fed; and the one we have now brought need not give you much uneasiness, if, as I hope, he proves able to find food for himself.” I now began to examine his wound, and found that only one wing was injured by the ball, but that the other had also been slightly wounded by the dog laying hold of him. I applied some ointment to both, which seemed immediately to ease the pain. I next tied him by one of his legs, with a long string, to a stake I had driven into the ground, quite near to the river, that he might go in and wash himself when he pleased.

In the meantime, my little railers had tied the two longest canes together, and were endeavouring to measure the tree with them; but when they found that they reached no further than the top of the arch formed by the roots, they all burst into immoderate fits of laughter, assuring me, that if I wished to measure the tree, I must think of some other means. I however sobered them a little by recalling to Fritz’s memory some lessons in land-surveying he had received in Europe, and that the measure of the highest mountains, and their distance from each other, may be ascertained by the application of triangles and supposed lines. I instantly proceeded to this kind of operation, fixing my canes in the ground, and making use of some string, which Fritz guided according to my directions. I found that the height of the lower branches of our tree was forty feet; a particular I was obliged scrupulously to ascertain before I could determine the length of my ladder. I now set Fritz and Ernest to work, to measure our stock of thick ropes, of which I wanted no less than eighty feet for the two sides of the ladder; the two youngest I employed in collecting all the small string we had used for measuring, and carrying it to their mother. For my part, I sat down on the grass, and began to make some arrows with a piece of the bamboo, and the short sharp points of the canes I had taken such pains to secure. As the arrows were hollow, I filled them with moist sand, to give them a little weight; and lastly, I tipped them with a bit of feather from the flamingo, to make them fly straight.

Just at this moment Fritz joined us, having finished measuring the ropes: he brought me the welcome tidings, that our stock, in all, was about five hundred fathoms, which I knew to be more than sufficient for my ladder. I now tied the end of a ball of strong thread to an arrow, and fixing it to the bow, I shot it off in such a direction as to make the arrow pass over one of the largest branches of the tree, and fall again to the ground. By this method I lodged my thread securely, while I had the command of the end and the ball below. It was now easy to tie a piece of rope to the end of the thread, and draw it upwards, till the knot should reach the same branch. Having thus made quite sure of being able to raise my ladder, we all set to work with increased zeal and confidence. The first thing I did was to cut a length of about one hundred feet from my parcel of ropes, an inch thick; this I divided into two equal parts, which I stretched along on the ground in two parallel lines, at the distance of a foot from each other. I then directed Fritz to cut portions of sugar-cane, each two feet in length. Ernest handed them to me, one after another; and as I received them, I inserted them into my cords at the distance of twelve inches respectively, fixing them with knots in the cord, while Jack, by my order, drove into each a long nail at the two extremities, to hinder it from slipping out again. Thus, in a very short time, I had formed a ladder of forty rounds in length, and, in point of execution, firm and compact, and which we all beheld with a sort of joyful astonishment. I now tied it with strong knots to the end of the rope which hung from the tree, and pulled it by the other, till our ladder reached the branch, and seemed to rest so well upon it, that the joyous exclamations of the boys and my wife resounded from all sides. All the boys wished to be the first to ascend upon it; but I decided that it should be Jack, he being the nimblest and of the lightest figure among them. Accordingly, I and his brothers held the ends of the rope and of the ladder with all our strength, while our young adventurer tripped up the rounds with perfect ease, and presently took his post upon the branch; but I observed that he had not strength enough to tie the rope firmly to the tree. Fritz now interfered, assuring me that he could ascend as safely as his brother; but as he was much heavier, I was not altogether without apprehension. I fastened the end of the ladder with forked stakes to the ground, and then gave him instructions how to step in such a way as to divide his weight, by occupying four rounds of the ladder at the same time with his feet and hands. It was not long before we saw him side by side with Jack, forty feet above our heads, and both saluting us with cries of exultation. Fritz set to work to fasten the ladder, by passing the rope round and round the branch; and this he performed with so much skill and intelligence, that I felt sufficient reliance to determine me to ascend myself, and well conclude the business he had begun. But first I tied a large pulley to the end of the rope, and carried it with me. When I was at the top, I fastened the pulley to a branch which was within my reach, that by this means I might be able the next day to draw up the planks and timbers I might want for building my aërial castle. I executed all this by the light of the moon, and felt the satisfaction of having done a good day’s work. I now gently descended my rope ladder, and joined my wife and children.

My wife presented me with the day’s work she had performed: it was some traces, and a breast leather each for the cow and the ass. I promised her, as a reward for her zeal and exertion, that we should all be completely settled in the tree the following day, and we then assembled to supper.