CHAPTER VII.
Fritz and I return to the Calabash wood—Fritz shoots a rutted grouse—We come across wax-berry bushes—Sociable grosbeaks—Fitz captures a parrot—A lecture on ants—Caoutchouc trees—The sago-palm, and the edible worms—Return with sugar-canes to Falconhurst—Candle-making—How to make butter without a churn—Plant trees and adorn Tentholm—Last visit to the wreck—The first ducklings on the island—Falconhurst again—An excursion—We pitch our tent—Fritz and Jack ascend the cocoa-nut trees—Ernest brings us a delicacy—Loss of Grizzle—Jack and I go in pursuit—Giant bamboos—Encounter with buffaloes—The buffalo calf—Find a jackal's lair—Reach our camp—What happened in our absence—Fritz's pet—Sago manufacture—Meet with our sow and her family again—How Ernest tamed the eagle.
The first thing to be done on the following day was to return to the Calabash Wood, to fetch the sledge with the dishes, bowls, and baskets we had made.
Fritz alone accompanied me. I desired the other boys to remain with their mother, intending to explore beyond the chain of rocky hills, and thinking a large party undesirable on the occasion. Passing through the wood of evergreen oaks, we observed our sow feasting on the acorns, evidently not a whit the worse for the fright we had given her the previous day in fact, she appeared more friendly disposed towards us than usual, possibly considering us as her deliverers from the jaws of the savage dogs.
Many birds tenanted this grove, and were undisturbed by our movements, until Fritz fired and shot a beautiful blue jay, and a couple of parroquets, one a brilliant scarlet, the other green and gold.
