From time to time the animals took mouthfuls of the tempting food they were beating out; we thought they well deserved it, and called to mind the command given to the Jews, `Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.'
After threshing, we proceeded to winnowing: by simply throwing the threshed corn with shovels high in the air when the land or sea-breeze blew strong, the chaff and refuse was carried away by the wind and the grain fell to the ground.
During these operations our poultry paid the threshing-floor many visits, testifying a lively interest in the success of our labours, and gobbling up the grain at such a rate that my wife was obliged to keep them at a reasonable distance; but I would not have them altogether stinted in the midst of our plenty. I said, `Let them enjoy themselves; what we lose in grain, we gain in flesh. I anticipate delicious chicken-pie, roast goose, and boiled turkey!'
When our harvest stores were housed, we found that we had reaped sixty, eighty, even a hundred-fold what had been sown. Our garner was truly filled with all manner of store.
Expecting a second harvest, we were constrained to prepare the field for sowing again, and immediately therefore commenced mowing down the stubble. While engaged in this, flocks of quails and partridges came to glean among the scattered ears. We did not secure any great number, but resolved to be prepared for them next season, and by spreading nets, to catch them in large quantities.
My wife was satisfied when she saw the straw carried home and stacked; our crop of maize, which of course had not been threshed like the other corn, afforded soft leaves which were used for stuffing mattresses, while the stalks, when burnt, left ashes so rich in alkali as to be especially useful.
I changed the crops sown on the ground to rye, barley and oats, and hoped they would ripen before the rainy season.
The shoals of herring made their appearance just as we finished our agricultural operations. This year we pickled only two barrels of them; but we were not so merciful towards the seals, which arrived on the coast directly afterwards. We hunted them vigorously, requiring their skins for many purposes, more especially for the completion of the cajack. On the little deck of that tiny vessel I had made a kind of magazine, in which to store pistols, ammunition, water and provisions, and this I meant to cover with seal-skin, so as to be quite watertight. A couple of harpoons furnished with seal bladders were to be suspended alongside.
Chapter 15
At last came the day when Fritz was to make his trial trip with the cajack. Completely equipped in swimming costume—trousers, and jacket and cap—it was most ludicrous to see him cower down in the canoe and puff and blow till he began to swell like the frog in the fable.