. Crusoe's Island; a bird-hunter's story . English tweed, which hedeclared more in keeping with his character as serv-ant and huntsman, and carefully stored away thewhite ones for Sunday wear. While we were at the beach, Friday gave me anexhibition of his agility, by walking up a cocoanut treeand gathering nuts enough to last us a week or , he walked up ; he did not climb. He made aloop of a piece of rope, passed it around the tree andhimself, and, bracing himself against this rope, hewent up with ease. The tree was tall and the bolevery straight and slippery, yet he climbed easily unt
. Crusoe's Island; a bird-hunter's story . English tweed, which hedeclared more in keeping with his character as serv-ant and huntsman, and carefully stored away thewhite ones for Sunday wear. While we were at the beach, Friday gave me anexhibition of his agility, by walking up a cocoanut treeand gathering nuts enough to last us a week or , he walked up ; he did not climb. He made aloop of a piece of rope, passed it around the tree andhimself, and, bracing himself against this rope, hewent up with ease. The tree was tall and the bolevery straight and slippery, yet he climbed easily untilhe reached the lower branches. There arrived, hecast off the loop, drew himself up over the greatbunches of cocoanuts and spathes, and commenced tohack away at the stems. He had stuck a large cutlass(a machete) in his belt, and as he ascended he pre-sented a comical sight, the machete sticking out like THE DEVOTION OF THOMAS NED. 183 the tail of a monkey. Out of the respect I bear toThomas ISTed I will not pursue this simian simile fur-. Gatliering cocoanuts. ther; but he wondered long why I fell on the sandand rolled in ecstasy of laughter. Having thrown down a lot of nuts, he descendedquickly, took his cutlass in hand again, and clippedoff the outer husk of one of them, trimming it to 184 CRUSOES ISLAND. a point at the smaller end, and then, with a swift,dexterous stroke, cut it across, leaving a small this I drew the cool liquid, clear and sweet,which fills the ivory chamber within, in quantitynearly a pint, and was about to throw the empty shellaway, when he caught it, with one blow cleft it intwain, and, chipping a spoon from the rind, handedit to me again, that I might scoop out the translucentjelly, which is considered a delicacy. Like all old negroes who have passed their livesin the shade of the cocoa palms, Thomas Ned was anadept at extracting from the best of the cocoanutstheir hidden virtues, and well merited the praise Ibestowed upon him for his skil
Size: 1519px × 1646px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcrusoesi, booksubjectbirds
