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This done, Jack, Fritz, and I set out to Tent House. We found it in a sad state. The storm had thrown down the tent, blown off some of the sail cloth, and let in the rain on our casks, some of which held a store of food. Our boat was still safe, but the raft of tubs had broken Lip, and what there was left of it lay in ... |
Our loss in the storm had been so great that I felt we ought at once to seek for some place on the rocks where we could put what was left. |
We went all round the cliffs, in the hope that we might find a cave, but in vain. |
"There is no way but to hew one out of the rock", said Fritz, "we must not be beat." |
"Well said, Fritz," said Jack; "we have each an axe. Why not try this cliff at once?" |
I gave them leave to try, and we soon set to work at the rock. From this spot we had a good view of the whole bay, and could see both banks of the stream. |
With a piece of chalk I made a mark on the side of the cliff, to show the width and height that the cave should be cut. Then each took an axe to try what kind of stuff our rock was made of. We found it a hard kind of stone; and, as we were not used to this sort of work, we had not done much when the time came for us to... |
We came back next day, and got on with more speed, though we thought it would not take us less than six months to make the cave, if our work were done at the same rate each day. |
At the end of five or six days we had got through the face of the rock, and we found the stone soft. In a day or two more we came to what was but hard clay, which gave way at a slight blow from the axe. |
"We need not fear now," said I, "for we shall soon have a hole as large as we want." |
With the earth we took out we made a ridge in front of the cliff. The boys now got on so well, and dug so much out, that I had hard work to throw up the earth on the bank. |
One day, as Jack stuck his pick in at the back of the cave, which was now more than eight feet from the front, a great mass of the rock fell in, and he cried out, "Look here! I have got through." |
"Through what?" said I. "Not through your hand, I hope." |
"No, no, but through the rock." |
At this, Fritz set up a loud laugh. |
"Why not say through the world at once, and push your crow bar in till you reach EU-ROPE, which, Ernest says, lies in a straight line from our feet. I should like to have a peep down, such a hole, for I might thus get a sight of our dear Swiss home." |
Fritz and I went up to the wall and found that Jack was right, for he had come to a clear space. His first thought was to jump in; but as I knew that there might be foul air in the cave, I would not let him risk his life. |
The boys then set fire to some dry grass, and thrust it in the hole, but it went out at once, which was a sure sign that the air was not fit to breathe. |
I knew that we had brought from the wreck a box full of fire works, which were used on board to make signs to ships far out at sea. I sent Fritz to Tent House for these, though I thought that they might be too damp to make use of. When he came back, I set light to some of them, and threw them in the hole. They flew rou... |
Our joy was so great that we sent Jack off home to The Nest to tell the good news, and to bring back some wax lights. I did not deem it safe for us to go in the cave in the dark, for there might be pools or deep dry pits in the ground. |
Fritz and I had just thrown up on the bank the last spade full of earth that had been dug out, when we heard a loud shout. We got up on the top of the cave, and saw that Jack had brought back a tribe at his heels. The large cart, drawn by the cow and the ass, came on at a slow pace, led by Jack on a black ox, and in it... |
By the help of a flint and steel I soon lit some of the wax lights, and gave one to each. I went in first and led the way, and the rest kept close at my back. We had not gone on more than a few steps when we came to a dead stop, struck with awe at the grand sight that met our view. The walls and roof of the cave were l... |
"What does it taste like?" said Jack. |
"I find," said I, "that we are in a cave of rock salt." |
"We shall not have to scrape the rocks to get our salt now," said Ernest, "for there is more here than would serve a whole town for a lifetime." |
When we went back to The Nest that night we laid out a plan for our new home, for there could be no doubt that the cave was the best place for us to dwell in, though we should still sleep in The Nest when we went on that side of the stream. |
The next day we all set to work; the floor of the cave was quite smooth, and the walls dry, so that we could build at once. We first cut holes in the sides of the rock to let in the light, and then brought frames and panes of glass from The Nest, and put them in. We then brought all the planks and wood we could find, a... |
I need not say that it took us some months to do all this, nor that we had to toil hard day by day, from morn till night, ere we got to the end of our task; but the end did come at last, and then the joy we felt that we had done all this with our own hands more than paid us for our toil. |
Chapter XII. |
OUR fields near Tent House had by this time brought forth good crops of wheat, maize, beans, and peas; but as the work of the Cave had for some weeks kept us on this side of the stream, we did not know in what state we should find our crops at The Nest. |
One day we all set out for our old home. We found our corn fields of a rich brown hue, and saw that the wheat was, for the most part, fit to reap. This, and a large patch of rye we cut down, and, as we did so, whole flocks of birds took to wing when we got near them, while quails were seen to run off at the sight of ou... |
We laid by the seed that was quite ripe till the time should come for us to sow it, and put the rest in sacks. Some of the wheat was laid up in sheaves till we should have time to beat out the grain. |
When we left The Nest for the Cave, we could not find the hand mill that we had brought from the ship. This now came to light, and we took care to pack it up to take with us, as we should want it to grind our corn. |
That night we slept once more in the great tree; but I must say that we did not now sleep so sound there as we used to do, nor did we feel so safe as we did in our rooms at Rock House. |
The next day we were to start a plan by means of which our live stock would not want so much of our care. They had bred so fast that we could well spare some of them, and these I thought might be left in some place to seek their own food, and yet be in reach should we want them. |
My wife took from her hen roost ten young fowls, and I took four young pigs, four sheep, and two goats. These we put in our large cart, with such tools as we thought we should need, tied the black ox, the cow, and the ass to the shafts, and then set off from The Nest. |
We had to cross a wide plain, and here we met with some dwarf plants on which, as Jack would have it, grew snow balls. |
Fritz ran to see what they were, and brought me a twig to which clung balls of snow white down. I held it up to show my wife, for I knew the sight would please her still more than her sons. |
"See," said I, "this is the COT-TON plant, which you have oft tried to find. It seems to grow here as thick as weeds, and, if I am a judge, it is of the best kind." |
We got as much of this as our bags would hold, and my wife took care to pluck some of the ripe seed, that we might raise a crop in our grounds at Tent House. |
At the end of the plain we came to the brow of a high hill, from which the eye fell on a view the like of which we had not yet seen. Trees of all kinds grew on the sides of the hill, and a clear stream ran through the plain at its base, and shone bright in the rays of the sun. |
We said at once that this should be the site of our new farm. Close by we found a group of trees, the trunks of which, as they stood, would do for the main props of the house. |
I had long had a mind to build a boat, and here I at last came on a tree that would suit. Fritz and I went for a mile or two in search of what we could find, and by the time we came back my wife had put up our tent for the night. We then all sat down to sup, and went to rest on beds made of the bags of the white down t... |
The next day we rose at dawn. The trees which were to form the frame of our farm house stood on a piece of land eight yards long by five wide. I made a deep cut in each of the trunks, ten feet from the ground, and put up cross beams to form a roof, on which we laid some bark in such a way that the rain would run off. |
We were hard at work for some days at the Farm House. The walls we built of thin laths and long reeds, wove close for six feet from the ground, but the rest we made of thin cross bars to let in both light and air. We made racks to store bay and such like food for the live stock, and put by some grain for the fowls, for... |
Our work took us more time than we thought; and as our store of food got low, we sent Fritz and Jack home to bring us a fresh stock, and to feed the beasts we had left at Tent House. |
While they were gone, Ernest and I made a tour of the woods for some miles round the new Farm. We first took the course of the stream that ran by the foot of the hill. Some way up we came to a marsh on the edge of a small lake, and here in the swamp grew a kind of wild rice, now ripe on the stalk, round which flew floc... |
We went quite round the lake, and saw plants and trees that were not known to me, and birds that Ernest said he had not seen in any of the woods near The Nest. But we were most struck with the sight of a pair of black swans, and a troop of young ones that came in their train. Ernest would have shot at them, but I told ... |
We did not get back till late in the day. Jack and Fritz, whom we met just as we came round the foot of the bill, had done their task well, for they had a good stock of food in a sack that lay on the back of the ass, and they brought the good news that all was well at home. |
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