tation, from which spring six to
twenty tall stalks, with joints varying, both in number and in distance,
from each other. The most esteemed variety, the Tahiti cane, is striped
with violet. The specimen you are looking at is one of the most
remarkable as regards size, for it must be nearly thirteen feet high."

"It is like a stalk of maize," said the boy.

"That's true, except that maize has only one stem. Look, there's an
Indian about to cut down the very plant I was showing you; he has
severed it through obliquely at a single blow, as near the ground as
possible. Now he is stripping off the leaves, and with another blow of
his weapon lops away the green top, which is used for fodder. Next, he
cuts it in lengths, taking care to sever it between the knots, as they
are required for planting new ground."

"Planting!" repeated Lucien; "the knots are not seed?"

"No, Master 'Sunbeam;' the seed of the sugar-cane comes to maturity too
slowly. It takes four years to produce a plant from it which is
profitable. Now, as young fellows of your kind are rather numerous, and
consume a good many preserves and sugar-plums, it is highly necessary to
devise some rapid method of supplying the sugar you devour. This method
has been found out. Each of these pieces of cane will be stuck into the
earth, and the knot, from which in the open air the leaves spring, will
send down roots into the soil. Small as it is, it will grow vigorously;
and in a year, or eighteen months at most, it will have produced a dozen
stalks quite as fine as the one you have been looking at."

During this long explanation l'Encuerado, who, on account of his load,
disliked standing still, had kept moving, so we had to increase our pace
to catch him up. As we were passing on, Lucien saw the Indian planting
the very pieces of cane he had just observed cut up. Ere long we came
upon a fresh plantation, in which the tender shoots, almost like grass,
appeared over the ground. Sumichrast dug a little hole round one of the
plants, and showed to his wondering pupil that the fragment of the stem
was already provided with small rootlets.

Suddenly, at the turn of a path, I was saluted by a man on horseback.
It was the steward of the estate that we were crossing.

"Hallo! Don Luciano, where are you off to with all that train?" cried
the new-comer.

"To visit the forest of the Cordillera," I replied.

"May you travel safely! but is the young gentleman going with you?"