"No, they are not monkeys; but I'll tell you what they are, although I cannot see them; they are parrots - I know their noise well. You see, William, it's not very likely that monkeys should get here, but birds can, and it is the birds that we have to thank for the bananas and guavas, and other fruits we may find here." As soon as they came under the trees, there was a great rioting and fluttering, and then away flew, screaming as loud as they could, a flock of about three hundred parrots, their beautiful green and blue feathers glistening in the beams of the sun. "I told you so; well, we'll have some capital pies out of them, William." "Pies! do they make good pies, Ready?" "Yes, excellent; and very often have I had a good dinner from one in the West Indies, and in South America. Stop, let us come a little this way; I see a leaf which I should like to examine." "The ground is very swampy just here, Ready; is it not?" "Yes; there's plenty of water below, I don't doubt. So much the better for the animals; we must dig some pools when they come here. "Oh! I thought I was not wrong. Look! this is the best thing I have found yet - we now need not care so much about potatoes." "Why, what are they, Ready?" "Yams, which they use instead of potatoes in the West Indies. Indeed, potatoes do not remain potatoes long, when planted in hot climates." "How do you mean, Ready?" "They turn into what they call sweet-potatoes, after one or two crops: yams are better things, in my opinion." At this moment the dogs dashed among the broad yam leaves, and commenced baying; there was a great rustling and snorting. "What's that?" cried William, who had been stooping down to examine the yam plant, and who was startled at the noise. Ready laughed heartily. "It isn't the first time that they've made you jump, William." "Why, it's our pigs, isn't it?" replied William. "To be sure; they're in the yam patch, very busy feeding on them, I'll be bound." Ready gave a shout, and a grunting and rushing were heard among the broad leaves, and, very soon, out rushed, instead of the six, about thirty pigs large and small; who, snorting and twisting their tails, galloped away at a great rate, until they gained the cocoa-nut grove. "How wild they are, Ready!" said William. "Yes, and they'll be wilder every day; but we must fence these yams from them, or we shall get none ourselves." "But they'll beat down the fence before it grows up." "We must pale it with cocoa-nut palings, and plant the prickly pears outside. Now, we'll go down to the sea-side."