CHAPTEK XXII. 



AFTER THE HURRICANE. 



We lose many of our birds — How Polly cheated Thomas Ned — 

 Man Friday digs out a dugout — Catching sharks with a fish 

 for a fishhook — Barracoutas, angel, Jew, and parrot fish. 



The morning after the hurricane opened bright 

 and shining, sunlight glancing from the newly washed 

 leaves, and there was a freshness in the air that 

 braced us to renewed endeavor. The restoration of 

 our roof was no great task, and before night it was 

 securely thatched ; but the damage to crops and pro- 

 visions could not be repaired. As we made excur- 

 sions into the woods, after the storm, we noted with 

 grief that the disasters to animal life had been great, 

 especially to the birds. The parrots and cockerricos 

 seemed to have been nearly all destroyed. We found 

 a few bedraggled specimens on the ground, with 

 scarce strength enough to escape capture ; and as for 

 the small birds, it was many days before any number 

 appeared again about my door. 



But Nature is strongly recuperative. Even the 

 humming birds, frail and delicate creatures, somehow 

 resisted the gale, and came straggling back again. 



