Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/177

Rh the fruit in the water, and, with one of the cocoa nuts, they made a most delicious meal. The moon was shining over the dim and purple sea before they re-gained their tent.

For some days following, their labour was incessant—the banama tree seemed to be made too obviously for their home to be neglected; they cut away some of the boughs, and, stripping off some of the leaves, formed a kind of wall of branches and reeds, of which a large species grew near, and in great quantities. The spring they had found oozed away to a considerable distance, and at last was quite lost in a bed of greyish clay. Frank had often seen the natives of the villages, whither he had sometimes gone, fashioning clay into any form by