گاومیش‌ها و حیوانات دیگه

CHAPTER TWELVE

Buffaloes and Other Animals

We left the next morning to get bamboo for our garden and for animal huts. My wife and the four boys came with me and the two dogs, Turk and Flora. We also took the donkey. We needed it to pull the bamboo to the side of the river. It was our first visit to this part of the island, so we took our guns with us. The dogs were a mistake - but the guns weren’t.

We went up the river and found a lot of bamboo. We cut it and tied it together, and the donkey pulled it to the river. Then we had a meal and rested.

Jack went for a walk. After a time, he came back and said, ‘Father, there’s a big field over there, and there are ten or fifteen large horses in it.’

I said, ‘Jack, there aren’t any horses in this place.’

‘There are,’ he said. ‘Come and see.’

When we came out of the trees, we saw a lot of buffaloes. We went nearer and nearer until we were about 130 feet away. The buffaloes stood and looked at us with their big round eyes. They didn’t seem to be angry or afraid. I could see two young buffaloes.

Then Turk and Flora began to jump up and down, making a lot of noise. The buffaloes became angry, and they came towards us. We were in great danger, but Fritz and I both used our guns. One of the buffaloes fell dead, and the others turned and ran away. We were lucky to escape so easily.

I said to Fritz and Ernest, ‘Come and catch those two young buffaloes. The dogs have pushed them into the trees. We must take them with us.’

We put ropes round their necks, and they came with us without any trouble. We hurried away as fast as we could.

‘Now,’ I said, ‘we’ll leave the bamboo until tomorrow. But the young buffaloes will be very useful! We’ll give them milk from the goat.’

The goat gave the young buffaloes her milk.

‘But,’ said Jack, ‘there won’t be much milk for us.’

‘No,’ I said, ‘but soon we’ll have as much milk as we need.’

‘You seem very pleased about the young buffaloes,’ said Ernest.

‘Yes, I am,’ I answered, ‘because now I can see an answer to two big problems.’

‘Oh,’ said Ernest, ‘what problems?’

‘These,’ I answered. ‘When the goat doesn’t give us any more milk, we won’t have any. But these two young buffaloes will grow up, and they’ll have babies. So we’ll have more and more buffaloes and plenty of milk. Buffalo milk is very good. We can make butter from it, and perhaps cheese too.’

‘And what was the other problem,’ asked Fritz.

‘The other problem,’ I answered. ‘You remember the plough that we brought from the ship? I didn’t know how we could pull it. A buffalo is very strong and the buffaloes can pull the plough for us. So now we have a plough and we have milk.’

‘Not yet,’ said Ernest.

‘No, not yet,’ I answered, ‘but next year. We mustn’t think only of today. We must think of future years.’

The next day, we went back and cut up the dead buffalo. We brought a lot of the meat back and put it into barrels with salt. ‘Now,’ I thought, ‘we’ll have food in the winter.’ We also put the bamboo in the river, and the river carried it down to a place near the Tree House. We pulled it to the Tree House and started to put it around our garden.

Some days later, when the garden was finished, I said, ‘Now we must begin to make huts for the animals.’

‘We’ll only need three huts,’ said Ernest.

‘Why only three huts,’ I asked.

‘We need one for the buffaloes, one for the goats and another for the sheep,’ said Ernest. ‘And perhaps we should make a house for the chickens.’

‘But,’ I said, ‘the donkey and the pig need huts too.’

‘Oh,’ said Ernest, ‘the pig’s gone. And today the donkey’s gone too.’

‘Gone,’ I said.

‘Yes. I can’t see it anywhere. And the pig went days ago.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but I hope they’ll come back. We’ll make huts for all of them, and hope.’

We were sitting at breakfast, a few days later, when Fritz said, ‘Something’s moving in those tall grasses. I’ll get my gun.’

He ran and got his gun.

‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Don’t shoot. Let’s see what it is.’

Jack said, ‘I’ll go round behind it and look. If it’s dangerous, I’ll run away.’

So Jack moved very quietly. He was very good at that because he often followed birds with his bow and arrow. The thing came nearer - and then out came our pig with six little ones!

‘At last,’ I said. ‘We’re all very glad to see you, Mrs Pig. And your house is ready for you!’

So we pushed the pig and her six babies into their hut.

Then Franz called to me. ‘Look,’ he cried. ‘Flora’s had six babies too!’

So now we had eight dogs and seven pigs.

‘Now where’s our donkey,’ I said.

One morning, we were planting potatoes in the garden, when we heard a strange noise.

‘What’s that,’ I said. ‘What sort of animal is making that noise?’

The dogs heard it too. They looked ready for a fight. We all looked round. We couldn’t see anything, but the noise continued. It came nearer and nearer, and our dogs became angrier and angrier. I tied them to a tree.

Then Fritz put down his gun and started to laugh. ‘I can see it,’ he said. ‘It’s our donkey. He’s come back!’

There he was. And then we saw that he wasn’t alone. Our donkey was bringing another animal with him, very similar to a donkey but smaller.

‘That,’ I said to Jack and Ernest, ‘is probably a kind of wild donkey Now don’t make a sound. Fritz and I will try to catch her.’

Fritz moved towards our donkey, holding some salt in his hand. Our donkey loved salt. He came to Fritz, and the wild donkey came a little closer too. Then, when she was near enough, I put a rope over her head from behind her. She fought against us, but at last we were able to tie her up.

I said, ‘Perhaps the wild donkey will have babies. It will be easier to teach her if she does. And she’ll be useful to us.’ And that is what happened, in the end.

The chickens were sitting on eggs, and soon we had forty little ones. So now we had a lot of animals to feed. We had the donkey and the wild donkey, two buffaloes, the goats, the pigs and the dogs, the sheep and the monkey.

I said, ‘We must work very hard and get food for all these animals. The rainy season is coming.’

So we brought the tent from the beach and filled it with dry grass. We got sweet potatoes and coconuts and put them in a dry place at the foot of the tree.