`Father,' said Fritz at length, `we want a quantity of hurdles, and
have scarcely any more bamboos of which to make them. Had we not better
get a supply from Woodlands? And you said, too, the other day, that you
wished you had some more of the fine clay: we might visit the Gap at
the same time.'
I had really no objection to propose; and it was shortly afterwards
settled that Fritz, Jack, and Franz should start together; and that
Ernest, who had no great desire to accompany his brothers, should
remain with his mother and me, and assist in the construction of a
sugar-mill, the erection of which I had long contemplated.
Before they started, Fritz begged some bear's meat from his mother, to
make pemmican.
`And what may pemmican be?' she asked.
`It is food carried by the fur-traders of North America on their long
journeys through the wild country they traverse; and consists of bear
or deer's flesh, first cooked and then pounded or ground to powder. It
is very portable, and nourishing.'
His mother consented `to humour him', as she said, although without
much faith in the value of the preparation; and in the course of two
days a stock of pemmican, sufficient for a Polar expedition, was
fabricated by our enthusiastic son.
They were ready to start, when I observed Jack quietly slip a basket,
containing several pigeons, under the packages in the cart.
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