Part 4 (1/2)

”Swallow it anyway. That turpentine smell lasts only a second,”

explained Filippa.

I tried another mango, and found it to be the juiciest and sweetest fruit that I ever ate, dripping wine, full of refreshment in a hot climate, food and drink and medicine in one.

”What do you do with its large seed, as hard as iron?” I inquired.

”I'll show you,” replied Moro.

The bright boy at once lighted a fire, and roasted the hard seed in the ashes. Then he brushed and washed it clean; and handed it to me, when it became somewhat cool, saying: ”Eat it too; it is really chocolate toast now.”

And such I found it to be.

”Your mango then is a whole breakfast,--toast, drink, and fruit,”

I said.

CHAPTER IX

THE FOREST

When we all met next morning, again under the bamboo grove, the good Padre said:

”If you were lost in your woods at home, you would soon wander and die; but if you were lost here, you could live for years.”

”Then let us go into such a forest of Eden,” I replied, and held out my hands to Fil and Filippa.

Away we went down the white sh.e.l.l road across the ca.n.a.l; and soon we were lost among the many trees, palms, and vines.

The Padre pointed to the coconut tree and the nipa palm, and said: ”As we already have told you, they would afford you a house, food, drink, light, and soap.”

”What is this great hard tree?” I inquired.

The Padre explained: ”That's the valuable mahogany. Thin strips of it are polished, and used to cover the woodwork of your piano and bureau at home.”

”And this other wonderful, new tree?” I asked.

”That is the molave. It is so hard that sea worms and white ants cannot bore into it. So it is good for boats, wharves, and frames for big buildings,” replied the Padre.

”Here is a pretty tree,” remarked Filippa.

”You should think so,” answered her father. ”It is the lanete. Its wood is so strong and pliable, that your violin was made from part of one.”

”Here's a skipping rope,” exclaimed Filippa.

”No, a boat rope,” explained Fil.

”That is really the bejuco rattan vine,” remarked the Padre, who knew botany and the lore of nature. ”It is three hundred feet long, as long as a city block, if you pull it out of the jungle and away from the tree tops, where it has climbed like a huge snake. We can use it for bridge or carriage ropes, or we can divide the strands and make cloth, or hats, or cord out of it.”