Part 10 (2/2)
For so the scene with feelings of pleasure Francois, as usual, first broke the silence
”I say, cook, what's for dinner to-morrow?”
It was to Lucien this speech was addressed He was regarded as the _maitre de cuisine_
”Roast or boiled--which would you prefer?” asked the cook, with a significant shed Francois; ”boiled, indeed! a pretty boil we could have in a tin cup, holding less than a pint I e _could_ have a boiled joint and a bowl of soup I'd give so dry roast”
”You shall have both,” rejoined Lucien, ”for to-morrow's dinner I proain Francois laughed increduously
”Do you mean to make soup in your shoe, Luce?”
”No; but I shall make it in this”
And Lucien held up a vessel somewhat like a water-pail, which the day before he had himself made out of birch-bark
”Well,” replied Francois, ”I know you have got a vessel that holds water, but cold water ain't soup; and if you can boil water in that vessel, I'll believe you to be a conjuror I know you can do sos with your chemical mixtures; but that you can't do, I'm sure Why, man, the bottoot blood-warm Soup, indeed!”
”Never mind, Frank, you shall see You're only like the rest ofthey can't comprehend If you'll take your hook and line, and catch soive you a dinner to-ular courses--soup, fish, boiled, roast, and dessert, too! I'm satisfied I can do all that”
”_Parbleu_! brother, you should have been cook to Lucullus Well, I'll catch the fish for you”
So saying, Francois took a fish-hook and line out of his pouch, and fixing a large grasshopper upon the hook, stepped forward to the edge of the water, and cast it in The float was soon seen to bob and then sink, and Francois jerked his hook ashore with a small and very pretty fish upon it of a silver hue, hich the lake and the waters running into it abound Lucien told hienus _Hyodon_ He also advised him to bait with a worht catch a sturgeon, which would be a larger fish
”How do you know there are sturgeon in the lake?” inquired Francois
”I aeon is found all round the world in the northern teh, when you go farther south into the wareons exist I am sure there are some here, perhaps eon is a toothless fish, and feeds upon soft substances at the bottom”
Francois followed the advice of his brother, and in a few e fish, full three feet in length Lucien at once pronounced it a sturgeon, but of a species he had not before seen It was the _Acipenser carbonarius_, a curious sort of fish found in these waters It did not look like a fish that would be pleasant eating; therefore Francois again took to bobbing for the silver fish which, though small, he knew to be excellent when broiled
”Come,” said Basil, ”I must furnish my quota to this famous dinner that is to be Let a the trees
”And I,” said Nor to eat the produce of other people's labour without contributing un and went off in a different direction
”Good!” exclaimed Lucien, ”we are likely to have plenty of etables;” and taking with hi the shore of the islet
Francois alone re Let us follow the plant-hunter, and learn a lesson of practical botany
Lucien had not gone far, when he ca in the water The stalks or culh, with sth, and of a light green colour At the top of each stalk was a large panicle of seeds, so a head of oats The plant itself was the famous wild rice so much prized by the Indians as an article of food, and also the favourite ofThe grain of the zizania was not yet ripe, but the ears were tolerably well filled, and Lucien saw that it would do for his purpose He therefore waded in, and stripped off into his vessel as much as he wanted
”I am safe for rice-soup, at all events,” soliloquised he, ”but I think I can do still better;” and he continued on around the shore, and shortly after struck into sorew in a damp, rich soil He had walked about an hundred yards farther, when he was seen to stoop and exaht to be found here,” he muttered to himself; ”this is the very soil for it--yes, here we have it!”
The object over which he was stooping was a plant, but its leaves appeared shrivelled, or rather quite withered away The upper part of a bulbous root, however, was just visible above the surface It was a bulb of the wild leek The leaves, when young, are about six inches in length, of a flat shape and often three inches broad; but, strange to say, they shrivel or die off very early in the season--even before the plant flowers, and then it is difficult to find the bulb