* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE next and following days were spent in removing our furniture and
property, particularly our poultry, which had multiplied greatly. We
also constructed a poultry-yard, at a sufficient distance from our house
to save our sleep from disturbance, and still so near that we could
easily tend them. We made it as a continuation of the colonnade, and on
the same plan, but enclosed in the front by a sort of wire trellis-work,
which Fritz and Jack made wonderfully well. Fritz, who had a turn for
architecture and mechanics, gave me some good hints, especially one,
which we put into execution. This was to carry the water from the basin
of the fountain through the poultry-yard, which enabled us also to have
a little pond for our ducks. The pigeons had their abode above the
hen-roosts, in some pretty baskets, which Ernest and Francis made,
similar to those made by the savages of the Friendly Isles, of which
they had seen engravings in Cook's Voyages. When all was finished, my
wife was delighted to think that even in the rainy season she could
attend to her feathered family and collect their eggs.

"What a difference," said she, admiring the elegance of our
buildings,--"what a difference between this Tent House and the original
dwelling that suggested the name to us, and which was our only shelter
four years ago. What a surprising progress luxury has made with us in
that time! Do you remember, my dear, the barrel which served us for a
table, and the oyster-shells for spoons, the tent where we slept,
crowded together on dried leaves, and without undressing, and the river
half a mile off, where we were obliged to go to drink if we were
thirsty? Compared to what we were then, we are now great _lords_"

"Kings, you mean, mamma," said Jack, "for all this island is ours, and
it is quite like a kingdom."

"And how many millions of subjects does Prince Jack reckon in the
kingdom of his august father?" said I.

Prince Jack declared he had not yet counted the parrots, kangaroos,
agoutis, and monkeys. The laughter of his brothers stopped him. I then
agreed with my wife that our luxuries had increased; but I explained to
her that this was the result of our industry. All civilized nations have
commenced as we did; necessity has developed the intellect which God has
given to man alone, and by degrees the arts have progressed, and
knowledge has extended more perhaps than is