t to be valuable, and
making it even an article of commerce with the Old World.

Above this double row of trunks and beams were disposed the joists and
planks which formed the floor of the jangada, and rose about thirty
inches above the load water-line. The bulk was enormous, as we must
confess when it is considered that the raft measured a thousand feet
long and sixty broad, and thus had a superificies of sixty thousand
square feet. They were, in fact, about to commit a whole forest to the
Amazon.

The work of building was conducted under the immediate direction of Joam
Garral. But when that part was finished the question of arrangement was
submitted to the discussion of all, including even the gallant Fragoso.

Just a word as to what he was doing in his new situation at the fazenda.

The barber had never been so happy as since the day when he had been
received by the hospitable family. Joam Garral had offered to take him
to Para, on the road to which he was when the liana, according to his
account, had seized him by the neck and brought him up with a round
turn. Fragoso had accepted the offer, thanked him from the bottom of his
heart, and ever since had sought to make himself useful in a thousand
ways. He was a very intelligent fellow--what one might call a "double
right-hander"--that is to say, he could do everything, and could do
everything well. As merry as Lina, always singing, and always ready with
some good-natured joke, he was not long in being liked by all.

But it was with the young mulatto that he claimed to have contracted the
heaviest obligation.

"A famous idea that of yours, Miss Lina," he was constantly saying, "to
play at 'following the liana!' It is a capital game even if you do not
always find a poor chap of a barber at the end!"

"Quite a chance, Mr. Fragoso," would laughingly reply Lina; "I assure
you, you owe me nothing!"

"What! nothing! I owe you my life, and I want it prolonged for a hundred
years, and that my recollection of the fact may endure even longer! You
see, it is not my trade to be hanged! If I tried my hand at it, it was
through necessity. But, on consideration, I would rather die of hunger,
and before quite going off I should try a little pasturage with the
brutes! As for this liana, it is a lien between us, and so you will
see!"

The conversation generally took a joking turn, but at the bottom Fragoso
was very grateful to the mulatto for having taken the initiative in
hi