MY TREE 39 



British West Indies, to help me. There was a 

 funny little shack on the island, a good deal like 

 the playhouse a boy might build for himself, and 

 there I meant to stay of nights until my ladder 

 was finished. We had rice and canned meat, 

 fruit and crackers and tea enough to feed us for 

 a few days. 



It was not so easy to find the right tree as you 

 might think. We climbed to the top of the slope 

 and looked around. One tree was a good height 

 and standing in a convenient place, but when I 

 drove a spike into it the spike went in about an 

 inch and shot out again. The wood was too 

 hard and close-grained to make room for the 

 spike. 



I knew better than to try that kind of tree 

 again. We walked farther and found a big thorny 

 tree, called a sand-box tree. It stood well up on 

 a ridge and towered over the jungle roof. The 

 trunk was about five feet through at the ground. 

 From the top of the tree hung large vines, called 

 lianas, an inch to three inches thick. Most jungle 

 trees are hung with these vines, which grow from 

 the ground up and from the branches down. 

 These lianas were as useful to me as ropes would 

 have been. 



The first thing we had to do^was to shave the 

 thorns off one side of the tree with our long 

 knives, called "machetes." The native uses his 

 machete for everything from a weapon to a hoe, 



