the reed are elastic enough to give a little,--to
bend instead of breaking," I answered.

"That is just it," again laughed my little Master Moro. "Our small nipa
hut, high in the air, sways a little, but rides out the storm. Every
pole, every beam, and every rafter of the frame, is all made of hollow
bamboo. Bamboo is stronger than steel, because it bends and gives,
and then springs back. There is no nail in the house. Every crosspiece
is tied with rattan, the same vine with which you make cane chairs;
so you know how strong and elastic it is."

"And of what are the sloping roofs and the side walls made?" I
inquired.

"Of the famous nipa palm," Moro replied. "It grows in swamps, often
near the sea. It looks like a gigantic fern. Its wide leaves we lap
one over another, and tie them to the bamboo frame by withes of tough
cogon grass."

"Are you not afraid of fire?" I asked.

Moro frankly said: "Yes, but as our house is so cheap, we can build a
new one easily. However, in this warm climate we cook in a separate
house, and we bathe out of doors. We do not smoke within our nipa
houses; it is too dangerous."

"Tell our friend from across the purple ocean how we use the bamboo
and the nipa plants, for other purposes besides building," remarked
little Fil.

Moro continued: "From the sap of the nipa palm, we distill
alcohol. From the hollow bamboo we make pipes for carrying water. We
boil the tender new shoots of bamboo, and eat them like celery. We
put a stopper into one joint of a hollowed bamboo, and use it for a
bottle. The pliant bamboo root we make into whips. We make bridges,
fences, window blinds, furniture, and carriages out of bamboo. We
even make blow guns and shoot our arrows at birds, through the
bamboo stalk."

"There are one hundred kinds of bamboo, and a thousand uses for the
plant," added Filippa.

"I should imagine that the bamboo is the skeleton or the framework,
and that the nipa is the skin of the Philippine structure," I remarked.

"That is the doctor's way of drawing a figure of speech," laughed
the Padre.

CHAPTER V

COCOA AND COFFEE

The next morning Filippa's mother refreshed us all with a cup of
fragrant cocoa, so that we might begin the day in good spirits. As
I was sipping it, the Padre remarked in good humor:

"Did you Americans seize the Philippines merely for a cup of cocoa?"

I replied laughingly: "This cup of cocoa is so good, that I certainly
would try to seize t