Our mornings were occupied in tending the animals; the boys
amused themselves with their pets, and assisted me in the manufacture
of carding-combs and a spindle for their mother. The combs I made with
nails, which I placed head downwards on a sheet of tin about an inch
wide; holding the nails in their proper positions I poured solder round
their heads to fix them to the tin, which I then folded down on either
side of them to keep them perfectly firm.
In the evening, when our room was illuminated with wax candles, I
wrote a journal of all the events which had occurred since our arrival
in this foreign land; and, while my wife was busy with her needle and
Ernest making sketches of birds, beasts and flowers with which he had
met during the past months, Fritz and Jack taught little Franz to read.
Week after week rolled by. Week after week saw us still close
prisoners. Incessant rain battered down above us, constant gloom hung
over the desolate scene.
Chapter 9
The winds at length were lulled, the sun shot his brilliant rays
through the riven clouds, the rain ceased to fall--spring had come. No
prisoners set at liberty could have felt more joy than we did as we
stepped forth from our winter abode, refreshed our eyes with the
pleasant verdure around us, and our ears with the merry songs of a
thousand happy birds, and drank in the pure balmy air of spring.
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