Page:The Swiss Family Robinson, In Words of One Syllable.djvu/29

Rh and made a fair meal of the fruit.

At the end of the wood we came to a plain which gave us a clear view of the place. Fritz, who was on the look out, ran off with Turk to some strange trees that he saw on the right.

"Do come here," he cried, "and tell me what these are."

When I got up to him, it gave me no small joy to find that it was a gourd tree.

"Try," said I, "if you can get hold of one of those queer lumps that grow on it."

With that he brought one down, and we had a look at it.

"Now, of this," said I, "we can make a plate, a dish, or a flask. It is by no means a nice kind of food, but wild men set great store by its shell, which they use to hold their food and drink."

We then set to work to make plates of the gourds, which we did in this way: I tied a string round the shell, and then made nicks all round it with a sharp knife. In these we put the string, and then gave it a tight pull, which cut it in half, and made two bowls. When we had thus made some eight or ten bowls, and some flat ones for plates, we laid them out in the sun to dry, and then went on our way.

We could see, not far off, a grove of fine palm trees, but to reach them we should have to pass through reeds and long grass, which grew