e risk of the intrusion of snakes or noxious insects;
besides which, bad weather might come on, when they would all require
shelter.

"Nothing like bamboo-house," observed Nub. "If earthquake come, it no
shake down; if storm come on, it no blow away."

The mate assented to the black's proposal, and agreed at once to cut
down a sufficient number of bamboos, not only for the ladder, but for
the house. This was not quite so easy a task as it at first appeared,
for though the canes were hollow they were excessively hard, and it was
only by chopping downwards all round that they could be broken off. At
length, however, a sufficient number for the proposed ladder were cut
down and carried to the foot of the tree.

Nub was not going to make a ladder of double poles; the tree being of
soft wood, he intended to stick in the rounds horizontally, and to
support them with a single pole. They had also to collect a quantity of
tough and lithe vines, which would serve to bind the rounds to the outer
pole; the thickest end of which was stuck deep into the ground. This
done, the work went on rapidly, round after round being driven into the
tree, about three feet apart. Nub, continuing his work, went on
ascending step after step, Dan following him when he got too high up to
reach the long poles from the ground. The height looked perilous in the
extreme, and Alice, as she watched him, could not help dreading that he
might miss his footing and fall down; but Nub was highly delighted with
the success of undertaking, and seemed to have no fears on the subject.

"Nub puts me in mind of `Jack and the Bean Stalk,'" said Walter,
laughing. "I only hope that he won't find an ogre at the top of the
tree."

"No fear about Nub," observed the mate. "I hope that he may soon wring
the necks of the hornbills and send them down to us."

Nub was now near the hole where the female hornbill had been seen. She
had drawn in her head; and her mate was either absent from home or was
concealed among the thick foliage at the top of the tree. The last
round was in, and Nub was seen preparing to mount on it, that he might
put in his hand and haul out Madam Hornbill. He was just about to do
so, when she put out her long beak, and began pecking away furiously at
his hand; while, at the same moment, down flew Mr Hornbill from a bough
on which he had been snugly ensconced till a favourable opportunity
arose of making an attack on the assailant of his f