All hands of our little community were soon on foot.
“Yah! yah! yah!” I heard the Frau cry out. “I will prepare breakfast. You men go and work. Yah!”
With axes, knives, and saws, most of us started for the nearest bamboo grove, and were soon cutting and hacking away, bringing down the huge stalks and clearing them of their leaves. Oliver and I, however, went in search of the boat, promising to join them. We eagerly hastened to the spot where we had left it, scarcely, however, expecting to find, it safe. It had escaped discovery, and we returned with the satisfactory information.
As the stalks of the bamboos were cut down, they were formed into bundles of a size which we could manage to drag over the ground to the site of the house. Two of the party, under the direction of my uncle, dug the holes where the uprights were to be inserted. Mr Hooker and I undertook to drag the bundles. When we arrived with the first, we found the Frau, aided by the girls, busily employed in roasting and boiling before a huge fire which she had kindled. Oliver was still unable to do any work. He therefore remained at the camp—as I may call it—in the careful hands of the kind Frau; she or one of the girls being constantly at his side, either with some cooling beverage, or with some delicacy which they thought might tempt his appetite. At a little distance, in the shade of some boughs, lay the wounded Malay. I saw his eyes fixed on the girls with an expression of wonder. He probably had never seen any beings so fair and graceful before. I could not help fancying that he must have supposed them angels from another world; but whether or not I was right, I have my doubts. When, however, one of them took him a cup of tea which the Frau had just brewed, he received it with an expression of countenance which I thought betokened gratitude.
When a number of people are working together with a will properly directed, it is extraordinary how rapidly work can be got through. We had a considerable number of the uprights in their places before we sat down to breakfast. We were not long about our meal, as we were determined to finish what was necessary to be done as soon as possible. Having cut down a sufficient supply of bamboos, we next proceeded to fell several sago-palms, for the purpose of obtaining the leaf-stems for the walls and partitions, while from the trunks we intended to make a supply of sago for our voyage. By the evening we had made wonderful progress with the house, and retired to our temporary huts, satisfied that we had done a good day’s work.
Fitting the leaf-stems into frames occupied a longer time; but as neatness was not our object, it was done rapidly. Thus in about four days we had a very respectable house over our heads, capable of holding all the party. My uncle sighed as he looked about it, though, and thought of the treasures his former abode had contained. We now brought back his and Mr Hooker’s collections, and stored them in a division which we called the museum.
“The next thing we have to do is to grow some corn for our consumption,” said our uncle.
“Grow corn?” I asked. “Why, I did not suppose that we were to remain here a year till it came up.”
He laughed. “A couple of months, or little more, after it is put into the ground, will be sufficient to produce the ripe corn,” he answered.
I expressed some incredulity, for I fancied that he was laughing at me.