As we returned, we caught up Jack, making his way in great glee towards Rockburg. He was carrying, in a basket, an immense eel, which he and Ernest had secured.
Ernest had set, on the previous night, a couple of lines; one had been dragged away, but on the other they found this splendid fellow.
It proved delicious. Half was prepared for dinner, and the other half salted and stowed away.
We now, for a short time, again turned our attention to our duties about the house.
Thinking that the verandah would be greatly improved by some creepers, I sowed round the foot of each bamboo pillar, vanilla, and pepper-seed, as well as that of other creeping plants, which would not only give the house a pleasanter aspect, but also afford us shade during the summer months.
I constructed a couple of hen-coops too, for the hens and their little chicks which we had brought from Woodlands, for I knew that if I left them unprotected, the inquisitive dispositions of Knips and Fangs might induce them to make anatomical experiments which would be detrimental to the welfare of the youngsters.
Ernest's rat-skins were voted a nuisance within doors, and were tied together and hung up outside; so powerful was the odour they emitted, that even then Jack would pretend to faint every time he passed near them.
The museum received its additions: the condor and vulture were placed there, to be stuffed when we should find time during the rainy season. The mica and asbestos, too, were brought in for the present, not to lie there idle, but to wait until I could use them as I intended, for china and lamp-wicks.
Having occupied two days in this way, we turned our attention to other duties: the cultivation of a wheat, barley and maize field, the management of the ostrich's eggs, and the taming of the captives.
As agriculture was, though the least to our taste, the most important of these several duties, we set about it first. The animals drew the plough, but the digging and hoeing taxed our powers of endurance to the utmost.