fast,--toast, drink, and fruit,"
I said.

CHAPTER IX

THE FOREST

When we all met next morning, again under the bamboo grove, the good
Padre said:

"If you were lost in your woods at home, you would soon wander and die;
but if you were lost here, you could live for years."

"Then let us go into such a forest of Eden," I replied, and held out
my hands to Fil and Filippa.

Away we went down the white shell road across the canal; and soon we
were lost among the many trees, palms, and vines.

The Padre pointed to the coconut tree and the nipa palm, and said:
"As we already have told you, they would afford you a house, food,
drink, light, and soap."

"What is this great hard tree?" I inquired.

The Padre explained: "That's the valuable mahogany. Thin strips of
it are polished, and used to cover the woodwork of your piano and
bureau at home."

"And this other wonderful, new tree?" I asked.

"That is the molave. It is so hard that sea worms and white ants
cannot bore into it. So it is good for boats, wharves, and frames
for big buildings," replied the Padre.

"Here is a pretty tree," remarked Filippa.

"You should think so," answered her father. "It is the lanete. Its wood
is so strong and pliable, that your violin was made from part of one."

"Here's a skipping rope," exclaimed Filippa.

"No, a boat rope," explained Fil.

"That is really the bejuco rattan vine," remarked the Padre, who
knew botany and the lore of nature. "It is three hundred feet long,
as long as a city block, if you pull it out of the jungle and away
from the tree tops, where it has climbed like a huge snake. We can
use it for bridge or carriage ropes, or we can divide the strands
and make cloth, or hats, or cord out of it."

"What gorgeous and sweet-scented flowers," exclaimed Filippa, pointing
to a great tree.

"That is the Ylang," said the Padre. "Our friend uses its perfume
on his handkerchief; but he did not know, perhaps, that the flower
grew in the far-away Philippines. It has the deepest fragrance of
any flower, whether on plant, bush, or tree."

"What can its strange name mean?" I inquired; for I seemed to have
no acquaintance with nature at all, in this wonderfully different land.

The Padre, who knew many languages, explained: "It is a Malay word
which means, 'The chief flower of all flowers'; and such I think
it really is. We capture the fragrance by distilling the flowers,
and mixing pure alcohol with the esse