As the light whirls of the smoke rose in quick succession his violence abated. Ernest smoked all the more intensely, making the cloud revolve, as it were, around the fierce bird's head. By degrees he grew perfectly quiet, and, fixing upon us a semi-drunken and unconscious gaze, remained clinging to the bough in a state of complete intoxication. His eyes were then bandaged without difficulty.

Frederick thanked his brother heartily for the service he had rendered him; and to reward him, went in search of his ape, which thenceforward became Ernest's property.

ARLY the next morning we set out to examine our plantations of fruit-trees, and to provide those which needed them with bamboo stakes and fences. We carried our bundles on the sledge, to which we harnessed our cow, leaving the buffalo at home until the wound in his nostrils was cicatrized. We gave him a handful of salt, which so raised us in his favourable opinion, that the poor beast, already half-tamed, would fain have followed us.

We commenced operations in the avenue leading from Falcon'sNest to Family Bridge. The wind had levelled our trees to the ground; but we raised them carefully, and while I dug a pit at the foot of each, my sons inserted therein a stout stake, to which the tree was firmly secured by some yards of cordage, made out of the long stems of dried herbs, as supple and as tenacious as the osier.

While thus engaged, my sons addressed to me a number of questions, suggested by the character of their occupation, and I made the best replies I could. They all more or less referred to the training and cultivation of trees.

"Are these grafted or wild trees," inquired Frederick, "which you have planted here?"

"Wild!" exclaimed Rudly; "do you want to make us believe that there are wild trees and tame trees?"

"You think you have uttered a witty thing, my dear Rudly,

THE THEORY OF GRAFTING.

and you have only said a foolish one.

235

Undoubtedly, no trees

exist which lower their leafy crest at man's bidding; but there are wild trees, and trees which are not wild. We obtain the latter by the process called grafting; that is, by the insertion of a small branch or slip of a good fruit-tree in one which bears only rough or acid fruit. By-and-by I will explain this method to you practically, and you will find it very amusing; for not only do we procure by it every kind of fruit, but we also vary or change the species. For example, as a general rule, the trees which we graft are always of the same kind; we do not graft apples on a cherry tree, because the fruit of the one has pips and that of the other a kernel. But, for this very reason, cherries succeed perfectly if grafted on a plum-tree, peaches on an apricot, or pears on a quince."

This brief explanation greatly interested my young gardeners.

"But, papa," inquired my thoughtful Ernest, "how could any one form the idea of grafting, if, as you say, all trees bearing good fruit have been submitted to this preliminary occupation! Where did man find the slips of good fruits fit for grafting on the wild trees?"

"Your question is reasonable. However, it is inaccurate to say that all trees require grafting before they can yield good fruit; such is only the case with European trees. In Europe an unfavourable climate is detrimental to the production of good fruit, while in other regions, never tilled by human industry, are found entire forests of fruit-trees, such as cocoas, guavas, oranges, lemons, citrons, which owe only to nature their fragrance and delicious taste!"

"Is the origin of all our European fruits known?" inquired the young professor.

Of nearly all. Thus our shell-fruit, such as the nut, the chestnut, and the almond, come from the East; the peach from Persia; the orange and apricot from Armenia; the cherry, which was not known in Europe until some sixty years before the Christian epoch, was imported from Asia Minor by Lucullus; and the olive sprung from Palestine. The first olive-trees were planted on Mount Olympus, whence they spread into the rest of Europe. The

236

THE HABITAT OF OUR FRUIT-TREES.

fig is a native of Lydia. Plums, to which you are so partial, except a few species indigenous in our own forests, belong to Syria, and the city of Damascus has given name to a well-known variety. The pear is a Greek fruit,-the ancients called it the fruit of the Peloponnesus. The mulberry is a native of Asia, and the quince comes from the town of Cydon, in the island of Crete. It is likewise said that the apple, named by the Romans Epiroticus and Asiaticus, is a fruit native to these countries; but for my part, I believe it is a child of the North, and always dwelt therein, with others of the same genus which people our forests, and have not been ameliorated by art. I think, too, that Europe has not been completely forgotten by the Creator in his division of the fruits of the earth, and that if most of them bear names indicative of a foreign origin, these serve rather to designate the species than the fruit itself."

While thus conversing with my young horticulturists, who frequently multiplied their questions to my infinite embarrassment, our work made rapid progress. After having propped up all the young trees of the avenue, we did the same good office for those in our south-eastern nursery-ground, where we had planted the more valuable shrubs which required a southern exposure, and it was near noon before we completed our task.

You may fancy with what a prodigious appetite we returned to Falcon's-Nest. Our good housewife provided us an excellent dinner, consisting of cured beef and palm-cabbage cooked with fresh butter-the whole, in our opinion, being a repast for a king!

Domestic labours occupied the remainder of the day. Towards evening I fixed upon a project which I had been long revolving in my mind, but whose execution presented some formidable difficulties; namely, the substitution for the rope-ladder, which my wife never ascended without fear and trembling, of a fixed substantial staircase. And, in truth, we should soon have to do more than pass the night in our aerial abode; the wet season would compel us to reside there altogether; we should then have to ascend and descend much oftener, and the shaking ladder might be the cause of many accidents. But such was the elevation of our leafy bower,

THE PENALTY OF A RASH ACTION.

237

that not all the spars and beams we had removed from the wreck would suffice, when put together, to reach its level, even if our feeble arms had been capable of accomplishing so arduous and difficult an undertaking. Yet, looking at the tree and its gigantic trunk, I said to myself, a hundred times daily,

"If it is impossible to mount it from without, is there no means of doing so from within?"

"Have you not told me," said I to my wife, for I had made known my idea, and welcomed suggestions from everybody towards its execution; "have you not told me that a swarm of bees was lodged in the trunk of our tree?"

"Yes, papa," cried little Fritz; "and wicked bees too! For they stung me so badly the other day that my face was all swollen -oh, they are horrid creatures!"

"You forget to say," interrupted his mother, "that if they maltreated you it was because, while swinging on the ladder, you took it into your head to grope with a stick in the hollow where they go in and out!"

"Yes, mamma; but I only wanted to see if the hole was very deep!"

"Eureka! I have found it!" I exclaimed; "the tree is hollow enough to accommodate a swarm; no doubt the malady which has attacked its heart has extended further. Of this we must make sure then let us enlarge the interior tube, or tunnel, and we will place there a staircase, the idea of which I have in my head. To work, boys; to work!"

But before I could give any instructions, my youngsters were off and away, some on the arch-like roots which supported the giant trunk, others swarming like squirrels up the ladder, and all four sounding the enormous fig-tree at different points to ascertain the extent of the cavity.

The experiment, too rashly attempted, was likely to have been attended with grievous consequences to one of the young experimentalists, for Rudly, when just opposite the aperture by which the bees made their exits and entrances, received in his face a full volley of the insects, which, frightened by the violent blows that shook their palace of wax, issued forth with a terrible buzzing.