e, that I ought to have got them ten times as long to reach even the
lowest branches. "There is a simpler mode than that," said I, "which
geometry teaches us, and by which the highest mountains can be
measured."

I then showed the method of measuring heights by triangles and imaginary
lines, using canes of different lengths and cords instead of
mathematical instruments. My result was thirty feet to the lowest
branches. This experiment filled the boys with wonder and desire to
become acquainted with this useful, exact science, which, happily, I was
able to teach them fully.

I now ordered Fritz to measure our strong cord, and the little ones to
collect all the small string, and wind it. I then took a strong bamboo
and made a bow of it, and some arrows of the slender canes, filling them
with wet sand to give them weight, and feathering them from the dead
flamingo. As soon as my work was completed, the boys crowded round me,
all begging to try the bow and arrows. I begged them to be patient, and
asked my wife to supply me with a ball of thick strong thread. The
enchanted bag did not fail us; the very ball I wanted appeared at her
summons. This, my little ones declared, must be magic; but I explained
to them, that prudence, foresight, and presence of mind in danger, such
as their good mother had displayed, produced more miracles than magic.

I then tied the end of the ball of thread to one of my arrows, fixed it
in my bow, and sent it directly over one of the thickest of the lower
branches of the tree, and, falling to the ground, it drew the thread
after it. Charmed with this result, I hastened to complete my ladder.
Fritz had measured our ropes, and found two of forty feet each,--exactly
what I wanted. These I stretched on the ground at about one foot
distance from each other; Fritz cut pieces of cane two feet long, which
Ernest passed to me. I placed these in knots which I had made in the
cords, at about a foot distance from each other, and Jack fastened each
end with a long nail, to prevent it slipping. In a very short time our
ladder was completed; and, tying it to the end of the cord which went
over the branch, we drew it up without difficulty. All the boys were
anxious to ascend; but I chose Jack, as the lightest and most active.
Accordingly, he ascended, while his brothers and myself held the ladder
firm by the end of the cord. Fritz followed him, conveying a bag with
nails and hammer. They were soon perched on the