AFTER THE HURRICANE. 223 



respective quarters ; all but the most important of 

 our choristers, the mocking bird. His dainty wife 

 came to visit us, peering anxiously into the house and 

 under the eaves, but without finding the object of 

 her search, and after sitting about dejectedly a few 

 days she left us altogether. No, not altogether ; I 

 mean she left us as a widow, but less than a week 

 later she returned as a bride. The husband she 

 brought was equally as fine in appearance as Mimus 

 number one, and they shamelessly took possession of 

 the same old quarters ; but the songs he sang did not 

 seem to me so sweet as those with which our first 

 friend used to greet the morn and dismiss the set- 

 ting sun. 



The crops I had so providently planted, months 

 before, were now coming to maturity — the arrow- 

 root, tannia, cassava, etc. — and down by the pond we 

 erected a primitive arrowroot mill, and made a big 

 oven for the drying of the " f arine." 



In the preparation of the f arine we observed great 

 care, for upon it we depended mainly for our farina- 

 ceous food in the future. The roots were first scraped 

 carefully and washed, then grated on a wheel which 

 Thomas Ned had rigged to revolve by water power, 

 against the rough surface of which the roots were 

 pressed. The cassava contains a very poisonous juice, 

 and to extract this we used the Indian baskets, which 

 are simply long cases of woven strips in the shape of 

 a cone. Filling these cases or cones with the coarse 

 meal, they are then short and corpulent ; hanging 

 them to the limb of a tree, with a weight attached to 



