"He had not finished before the farmer came running out with his wife and sons, all beating tin pans and shouting. The toucan let them approach quite close, and then made a sudden dive at them with his wings down, rose in the air right over their heads and flew away with a loud chuckling kind of noise that sounded like a laugh. The farmer and his family fell over each other in their fright, and when they had recovered their feet the bird was far away. "It was all so funny that I had to laugh, and then I thought of a scheme for getting across the desert." CHAPTER XIII That afternoon I went up the mountain sides for a short distance and found some good reeds that would make a basket. It took me several days to weave what I wanted. I made a basket five feet long by two and a half feet wide, and put a false bottom in it, leaving a compartment underneath deep enough for me to crawl into. I put a hinge on the side of this bottom compartment so that I could let the side up and down, and lock it from the inside. When the basket was finished I wove a strong openwork cover for the top, leaving spaces just a little smaller than a peach, and fastened it securely to the basket. "I took my basket to the edge of the desert, hid it in a tree, and went to purchase peaches enough from the nearest farmer to fill it. I carried several pails before it was full, taking care to put the most luscious ones on top, and after fastening the cover with the clamps I had put on it, crawled into the bottom compartment, fastened up my side opening and lay still to await results. "It must have been two hours, and I was beginning to feel very much cramped when I heard a whirring of great wings, and then the toucan alighted on the ground beside me. He had evidently spied the basket and was curious to know what it was. He came over and then I could feel him pecking at the peaches through the woven covering. "It was only a moment before somebody saw him, for every farmer had a boy watching, and the cry rang out, 'The toucan, the toucan!' I could see people running hurriedly towards us waving shovels, scythes, hoes, and various other implements. The toucan did just what I had hoped he would. He seized the basket by the handle and flew away over the desert with it, and I lay in the bottom looking down at the desert sands below, and thinking of what a dreadful death I should have if he dropped me. [Illustration: The toucan . . . seized the basket by the handle and flew away.]