n. First she produced some golden
apples with reddish leaves.

"There," said she; "and they smell delicious."

Hazel eyed them keenly.

"You have not eaten any of them?"

"What! by myself?" said Helen.

"Thank Heaven!" said Hazel, turning pale. "These are the manchanilla, the
poison apple of the Pacific."

"Poison!" said Helen, alarmed in her turn.

"Well, I don't _know_ that they are poison; but travelers give them a
very bad name. The birds never peck them; and I have read that even the
leaves, falling into still water have killed the fish. You will not eat
anything here till you have shown it me, will you?" said he, imploringly.

"No, no," said Helen; and sat down with her hand to her heart a minute.
"And I was so pleased when I found them," she said; "they reminded me of
home. I wonder whether these are poison, too?" and she opened her apron
wide, and showed him some long yellow pods, with red specks, something
like a very large banana.

"Ah, that is a very different affair," said Hazel, delighted; "these are
plantains, and the greatest find we have made yet. The fruit is meat, the
wood is thread, and the leaf is shelter and clothes. The fruit is good
raw, and better baked, as you shall see, and I believe this is the first
time the dinner and the dish were both baked together."

He cleared the now heated hearth, put the meat and fruit on it, then
placed his great platter over it, and heaped fire round the platter, and
light combustibles over it. While this was going on, Helen took him to
her bower, and showed him three rusty iron hoops, and a piece of rotten
wood with a rusty nail, and the marks where others had been. "There,"
said she; "that is all I could find."

"Why, it is a treasure," cried he; "you will see. I have found something,
too."

He then showed her the vegetable wool and vegetable hair he had
collected, and told her where they grew. She owned they were wonderful
imitations, and would do as well as the real things; and, ere they had
done comparing notes, the platter and the dinner under it were both
baked. Hazel removed the platter or milk-pan, and served the dinner in
it.

If Hazel was inventive, Helen was skillful and quick at any kind of
woman's work; and the following is the result of the three weeks' work
under his direction. She had made as follows:

1. Thick mattress, stuffed with the vegetable hair and wool described
above. The mattress was only two feet six inches wide; for H