Fritz ran up directly, and in a few moments brought out alive the male and female heath-fowl, both very beautiful; the cock finely collar’d, similar to one he had killed on a former occasion, not without much regret on my part. I was rejoiced at this discovery, and helped my son to prevent their escape by tying their wings and feet, and holding them while he returned to the bush for the eggs. And now Ernest came forward driving the monkey before him, and carrying his hat with the utmost care: he had stuck his girdle full of narrow sharp-pointed leaves, in shape like a knife-blade, which reminded me of the production named sword-grass; but I did not pay much attention, as I was too busily engaged in our egg-hunt, and considered his decoration as childishness. On coming up to me he uncovered his hat, and gave it to me in a transport of joy, crying out, Here, dear father, here are some heath-fowl’s eggs; I found them in a nest so well concealed under these long leaves that I should not have observed them had not the hen, in defending herself against the monkey, scattered them about. I am going to take them home, they will please my mother; and these leaves will so amuse Francis, they are like swords, and will be the very thing he will like for a play-thing. I applauded Ernest’s attention to both, and I encouraged him and Fritz to be thus ever considerate for the absent, so as to prove they could never be forgotten. The kindnesses conferred on those who are separated from us have in themselves more merit, and are more valued, than those which are personally received. It was now time to think of moving homeward: my two sons filled the bags with acorns and put them on Lightfoot; Fritz mounted, Ernest carried the eggs, I took charge of the hen, and we proceeded to Falcon’s Stream followed by our train-waggon. Our good cattle were in such complete subjection that it was only necessary to speak to them. I remarked Ernest often applying his ear to the hat which held the eggs, as if he thought the little ones were near coming forth; I listened also, and observed some shells already broken and the young protruding: we were overjoyed at our good luck, and Fritz could not refrain from trotting on briskly to bear the tidings to his dear mother: but he went rather faster than he intended on setting out: he had taken a handful of the pointed leaves with him, which he whisked before the ears and eyes of the onagra, till the animal was frightened, lost all restraint, and darted forward with him like a shot, hurrying away bags and rider at such a rate that we soon lost sight of them. Anxious for his safety, we followed as fast as possible, though out of sight of him all the way; but on our arrival at Falcon’s Stream we had the satisfaction of finding him there in perfect safety. His mother, indeed, had been somewhat alarmed in seeing him dash in like a thunderbolt, but firmly seated betwixt the bags on master Lightfoot, who well deserved his name on this occasion, and who stopped short with wonderful precision at his stable door. Our first care was to examine the eggs: the female bird was too frightened and wild to sit upon them: fortunately we had a hen that was hatching; her eggs were immediately removed, and the new ones put in their place: the female heath-fowl was put into the parrot’s cage, and hung up in the room to accustom it to our society. In less than three days all the chickens were hatched, they kept close to their foster-mother, and ate greedily a mixture of sweet acorns bruised in milk, such as we gave our tame poultry: as they grew up I plucked out the large feathers of their wings, lest they should naturally take flight; but they and their real parent gradually became so domesticated, that they daily accompanied our feathered stock in search of food, and regularly came back at night to the roost I had prepared for them, and in which this little new colony of feathered beings seemed to delight.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Flax, and the rainy season.
Francis for a short time was highly amused with his sword-leaves, and then like all children, who are soon tired of their toys, he grew weary of them, and they were thrown aside. Fritz picked up some of them that were quite soft and withered; he held up one which was pliable as a ribband in the hand: My little fellow, said he to his brother, you can make whips of your sword-grass, take up the leaves and keep them for this purpose, they will be of use in driving your goats and sheep. It had been lately decided that it should be the business of Francis to lead these to pasture.
Well then, help me to make them, said the child. They sat down together. Francis divided the leaves into long narrow slips, and Fritz ingeniously platted them into whip-cords. As they were working, I saw with pleasure the flexibility and strength of the bands; I examined them more closely, and found they were composed of long fibres or filaments; and this discovery led me to surmise that this supposed sword-grass might be a very different thing, and not improbably the flax-plant of New Zealand, called by naturalists Chlomidia, and by others Phormion[19]. This was a valuable discovery in our situation: I knew how much my wife wished for the production, and that it was the article she felt most the want of; I therefore hastened to communicate the intelligence to her, upon hearing which she expressed the liveliest joy: This, said she, is the most useful thing you have found; I entreat you, lose not a moment in searching for more of these leaves, and bring me the most you can of them; I will make you stockings, shirts, clothes, thread, ropes.....
In short, give me flax, looms, and frames, and I shall be at no loss in the employment of it. I could not help smiling at the scope she gave to her imagination, on the bare mention of flax, though so much was to be done between the gathering the leaves and having the cloth she was already sewing in idea. Fritz whispered a word in Jack’s ear; both went to the stable, and without asking my leave, one mounted Lightfoot, the other the buffalo, and galloped off towards the wood so fast that I had no time to call them back; they were already out of sight: their eagerness to oblige their mother in this instance pleaded their forgiveness, and I suffered them to go on without following them, purposing to proceed and bring them back if they did not soon return.
In waiting for them I conversed with my wife, who pointed out to me with all the animation and spirit of useful enterprise so natural to her character, the various machinery I must contrive for spinning and weaving her flax for the manufactory of cloths, with which she said she should be able to equip us from head to foot; in speaking of which, her eyes sparkled with the love of doing good, the purest kind of joy, and I promised her all she desired of me.
In a quarter of an hour our deserters came back on a full trot, and I was pleased to see them again; like true hussars, they had foraged the woods, and heavily loaded their cattle with the precious plant, which they threw at their mother’s feet with joyful shouts. We could not blame their abrupt departure. Jack made us laugh in recounting with his accustomed vivacity and drollery at what a rate he had trotted his buffalo to keep up with Lightfoot, and how his great horned horse had thrown him by a side leap; yet that notwithstanding these, he and his buffalo, as in duty and allegiance bound, were, as ever, at the entire command of their acknowledged queen. Well, said I, you shall then all assist her with consummate diligence in preparations for the work she is about to engage in, and previously in steeping the flax.
Fritz.—How is flax prepared, father, and what is meant by steeping it?
Father.—Steeping flax, or hemp, is exposing it in the open air, by spreading it on the ground to receive the rain, the wind, and the dew, in order in a certain degree to liquefy the plant; by this means the ligneous or cortical parts of the flax are separated with more ease from the fibrous; a kind of vegetable glue that binds them is dissolved, and it can then be perfectly cleaned with great facility, and the parts selected which are fit for spinning.
Fritz.—But may not the natural texture of this part be destroyed by exposing it so long to wet?