We now, for a short time, again turned our attention to our duties about the house.
Thinking that the veranda 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 odor 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 plow, but the digging and hoeing taxed our powers of endurance to the utmost.
We worked two hours in the morning and two in the evening. Fully did we realize the words of Scripture: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."
In the interval we devoted our attention to the ostrich. But our efforts on behalf of his education seemed all in vain. He appeared as untamable as ever. I determined, therefore, to adopt the plan which had subdued the refractory eagle.
The effect of the tobacco fumes almost alarmed me. The ostrich sank to the ground and lay motionless. Slowly, at length, he arose, and paced up and down between the bamboo posts.