By these means we soon got a hive
of fine bees, and the trunk of the tree was left free for our use.
We had now to try the length of the hole. This we did with a long pole,
and found it reached as far up as the branch on which our house stood.
We now cut a square hole in that side of the trunk next the sea shore,
and made one of the doors that we had brought from the ship to fit in
the space. We then made the sides smooth all the way up, and with
planks and the staves of some old casks, built up the stairs round a
pole which we made fast in the ground. To do this we had to make a
notch in the pole and one in the side of the trunk for each stair, and
thus go up step by step till we came to the top. Each day we spent a
part of our time at what we could now call the farm, where the beasts
and fowls were kept, and did odd jobs as well, so that we should not
make too great a toil of the flight of stairs, which took us some six
weeks to put up.
One day Fritz caught a fine EA-GLE, which he tied by the leg to a
branch of the tree, and fed with small birds. It took him a long while
to tame, but in time he taught it to perch on his wrist, and to feed
from his hand. He once let it go, and thought he would have lost it,
but the bird knew it had a good friend, for it came back to the tree at
night.
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