Any thing that gave them employment was acceptable to the boys, and they scampered from one tree to another to examine the quality or try to discover the species. The names they did not know, but were content to distinguish the varieties as palm, oak, ash, cedar, or box, as they fancied they resembled those well-known trees. There were also the various gum-trees, the cabbage-palm, and a new and interesting object to Mr. Mayburn, which he recognized from description,—the grass-tree, Xanthorrhœa arborea, the rough stem of which was ten feet in height and about two feet in circumference, and which terminated in a palm-tree form, with a cluster of long grass-like foliage drooping gracefully; while from the midst of the cluster sprang a single stamen of ten feet in height.
Mingled with the loftier trees was a sort of shrub, called by Wilkins the Tea Shrub, the leaves of which, he told them, were used in the colony as tea "by them as liked such wishwash;" and as Jenny and Ruth declared that they especially did like this "wishwash," they gathered a quantity of the leaves to make the experiment of its virtues.
"It certainly belongs to a family of plants," said Mr. Mayburn, "which are all-important to the comfort and health of man; and though I do not know the species, I should judge that an infusion of these leaves would produce a wholesome, and probably an agreeable, beverage. The delicate white flowers are not unlike those of the tea-plant, certainly. But pray, nurse, do not load yourself with too great a burden of the leaves, for the shrub seems abundant, and we have already too much to carry in this burning climate."
CHAPTER XV.
The Tea-Shrub.—Another Canoe.—A Skirmish with the Natives.—Wounded Heroes.—An Attempt at Voyaging.—A Field of Battle.—The Widowed Jin.—Wilkins's Sorrows.—Baldabella in Society.—The Voyage resumed.
"When are we to dine—or sup, rather—commander?" said Hugh; "I am so famished, that I could eat one of those noisy cockatoos half-cooked, and Margaret looks very pale and weary."
"We must try to reach one of those green hills before us," said Arthur; "we shall there be pretty certain to meet with some cave or hollow, where we can at least, stow our luggage; and then our cares and our sleep will be lighter; and as we go along, we will plunder some nests, that Margaret may have eggs for her supper."
They took as many eggs and young birds as they required, and went on till they found, among the hills, a hollow, capacious enough for a night's lodging, and here they made a fire to cook the birds and to boil the tea in a large mussel-shell. Ruth bemoaned again her awkwardness in breaking the tea-cups; for now they had to sip the infusion of leaves from cockle-shells. Wilkins declined the luxury; but the rest enjoyed it, and declared that it not only had the flavor of tea, but even of tea with sugar, which was an inestimable advantage.
"The plant is certainly saccharine," pronounced Mr. Mayburn.