FIRST BOOK. 
THE BREAD-FRUIT. 
1. Just over a hundred years ago, a ship was 
sent to the South Sea Islands by the King of 
England, George the Third, for a cargo of young 
trees of a very wonderful kind. They were bread- 
fruit trees, and it was thought that the people 
of the West Indies would be glad to have some 
of them, that they might be able to gather the 
fruit for bread''. 
2. So the ship took about 350 of the young 
trees to Jamaica, and ever since that time the 
bread-fruit tree has grown in the islands of the 
West Indies. 
The tree is common now in the islands, and 
the fruit is sometimes used either as bread or to 
eat with meat. It is a round fruit, as large some- 
times as a child's head. It hangs from a thick, 
fleshy stalk, and its green rind is very rough and 
uneven. 
3. Before the fruit is ripe the rind is filled with 
a kind of pith, which is very white and mealy. 
In time this becomes pulpy and juicy, in the 
same way as a banana does when it ripens. 
4. We do not wait for the fruit to get juicy if we 
wish to eat it; but we gather it while it is mealy. 
When gathered, it ought to be baked as soon as 
possible, or it will be spoiled by becoming soft. 
