Franz came to beg me make a little bow and arrow for him to shoot
with, while Fritz asked my advice about the tiger-cat skin and the
cases he was to contrive from it. Jack assisted with the arrow-making,
and inserting a sharp spine at one end of each reed made it fast with
pack-thread, and began to wish for glue to ensure its remaining firm.
`Oh, Jack! Mamma's soup is as sticky as anything!' cried Franz. `Shall
I run and ask for a cake of it?'
`No, no, little goose! Better look for some real glue in the
tool-box.'
`There he will find glue, to be sure,' said I, `and the soup would
scarcely have answered your purpose. But Jack, my boy, I do not like to
hear you ridicule your little brother's idea. Some of the most valuable
discoveries have been the result of thoughts which originally appeared
no wiser than his.'
While thus directing and assisting my sons, we were surprised by
hearing a shot just over heads; at the same moment two small birds fell
dead at our feet, and looking up, we beheld Ernest among the branches,
as bending his face joyfully towards us, he cried, `Well hit! Well hit!
A good shot, wasn't it?'
Then slipping down the ladder, and picking up the birds, he brought
them to me. One was a kind of thrush, the other a small dove called the
ortolan, and esteemed a very great delicacy on account of its exquisite
flavour.
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