lear 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 that we brought from the trees on the plain.

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 plan was to come from time to time
to feed them, till they got used to the place.

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 flocks of birds. We shot five or six
of these, and I was glad to note the skill with which Ernest now used
his gun. I took some of the rice, that my wife might judge how far it
was of use to us as food.

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 him not to kill what we did not want
for use.

We did not get back till