tribe. Anything
like the way in which I am teased by things biting me is not to be
described."

The girls were delighted with the business set before them, and even
Madame appeared with a hatchet in her delicate fingers, but without
being able to make even an apology of a stroke.

When the tree was down, we proceeded to shoe ourselves, intent upon
delighting and surprising Jenny. But we never regarded a gummy substance
exuding from all parts of the tree, which plagued us for some time
afterwards, destroying the stockings, and very, very difficult to get
off, also blistering the skin a little, but these sheathes for the
leaves of the Ita palm really made capital shoes. We had only to dry
them a little in the sun. They did not however last very long, and it
was no uncommon thing for the boys to want a new pair every day.
Notwithstanding there being such an abundance of these naturally-growing
ready-made shoes, we were not sorry at the ingenious invention of Sybil
and Serena, who, after repeated efforts, contrived to plait most
excellent shoes out of grass.

One day, penetrating a little farther than usual, we came to a rich
little glen, running down to the sea. Here, digging up some plants, as
was our usual custom, to make fresh discoveries, we found the mould of a
beautiful bright red colour; this shaded off into deep chocolate or
bright yellow. We could not discover any metallic substance in it, or
that it tasted of anything, but it painted our fingers whenever we
touched it, and when first turned up was glossy and shining. Near this
place grew some sugar canes, curiously striped, and a tree or shrub,
seven or eight feet high, with an oblong hairy pod; something like a
chestnut, hanging to it; inside were about thirty or forty seeds, buried
in a pulp of bright red colour, smelling rather fragrant. We found out
afterwards that these seeds were good for fevers, and the pulp made very
good red paint.

The tobacco plant we all knew very well. It grew in the most rank manner
here. But one of the most lovely trees we had yet discovered was one
twenty feet high, with a grey, smooth, shining trunk, apparently
destitute of bark. It had beautiful dark green leaves, with an
astonishing profusion of white flowers, so deliciously fragrant, that we
sat to the wind side of it with the greatest delight. It had berries on
it, out of which squeezed a sweet oil smelling of cloves.

We did not like the situation of our house nearly s