bt assist us."

Roger Trew, who had ascended the ladder with his bundle of bedding,
deposited it in the room my uncle pointed out, and forthwith commenced
unlashing it; and knowing that he would prove a better assistant to the
dame than Oliver and I should, we accompanied my uncle to what he called
his cooking-shed, at the back of the house. Here he had brought water
from a spring in the forest, and had made a drain towards the sea to
carry off the refuse. He had a variety of fish, flesh, and fowl in his
larder, which was in a cool place at the back of the house.

I scarcely know what I shall describe first. The fruit was the most
attractive. There was the delicious mangostin--of a spherical form.
The outer part is a thick rough covering, and it has a white opaque
centre, an inch or more in diameter. Each of the four or five parts
into which it is divided, contains a small seed. The white part is what
is eaten. It has a slightly sweet taste, and a rich yet delicate and
peculiar flavour, which it is impossible to describe. Then there was
the rambutan--a globular fruit, an inch and a half in diameter. The
rind is of a light red, adorned with coarse scattered bristles. Within,
there is a semi-transparent pulp, of a slightly acid taste. Next there
was the elliptical shaped mango, containing a small stone of the same
form. The interior, when the tough outer skin was removed, consisted of
a soft, pulpy, fibrous mass, of a bright yellow. Another fruit
appeared, in the form of long clusters, about the size of a small bird's
egg. It was the duku. The outer coating was thin and leathery, and of
a dull yellow. In the inside were several long seeds, surrounded by a
transparent pulp, of a sweet and pleasantly acid taste. The durian,
however, my uncle told us, was among the most esteemed of all the fruits
in that region. It is spherical in form, six or eight inches in
diameter, and generally covered with many tubercles. The interior is
divided into several parts. On breaking the shell, we found in each
division a seed as large as a chestnut, surrounded by a pale yellow
substance, of the consistency of thick cream; but the odour was enough
at first to make me have no wish to eat it. It seemed to me like putrid
animal matter, and peculiarly strong.

"You do not like the odour, Walter," observed my uncle. "Nor did I at
first, but I have now become so fond of the fruit, that I prefer it to
any other. But, after a