باغچه

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Garden

We got up very early in the morning. We wanted to start work on our garden before the weather got hot. Fritz, Ernest and I took our tools. Jack had a fork, but he wasn’t really old enough.

We all started to work. After a time, when we were quite tired, I said, ‘Let’s see what the animals left on the ground last night. That’ll be very good for the earth in the garden.’

We went to look.

‘The pig! The pig’s gone,’ Jack cried.

It was true - the pig was nowhere near the Tree House.

‘We can’t do anything about that,’ I said. ‘Perhaps she’ll come back again.’

‘You said “she”,’ said Jack.

‘Yes, of course. I think she’s going to be a mother. Perhaps she’s gone away to the forest to have her babies there. Then she’ll come back, I hope.’

We went back and worked again in the garden. We were all very tired when it was time for the evening meal. We had fish and sweet potatoes.

‘Now,’ I said, ‘we must work in the garden again tomorrow, and plant all the seeds from the ship. Then we’ll put bamboo around our garden and make huts for the animals.’

‘We must make a big hut for the pig,’ said Jack, ‘if she has a lot of little pigs.’

‘Now, go to bed,’ I said to the boys. ‘Be ready to work hard tomorrow. First, we’ll get the bamboo.’

‘How will we carry a lot of bamboo across the ground,’ asked Jack. ‘We can’t use the sledge. Can the donkey pull it?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘We won’t go to the place where we found bamboo before. We’ll go to a different place. Then we’ll be able to bring it here more easily.’

‘Oh,’ said Jack, ‘is there an easier way?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘we’ll go up the river. We’ll cut the pieces of bamboo and pull them to the river. Then the river can carry them down to our Tree House.’

‘Ah,’ said Jack. ‘Yes, that’ll be the best way.’