Meanwhile I perceived with pleasure the rapid vegetation the climate was producing. The seeds we had scattered had germinated, and were now promising magnificent crops. The veranda, too, was looking pleasant with its gay and sweet-scented creepers, which were already aspiring to the summit of the pillars. The air was full of birds, the earth seemed teeming with life. The dress was at length completed, and Fritz one fine afternoon offered publicly to prove it. We all assembled on the beach, the boy gravely donned and inflated the garment, and, amid roars of laughter from his brothers, entered the water. Quickly and easily he paddled himself across the bay toward Shark Island, whither we followed in one of our boats. The experiment was most successful, and Ernest, Jack, and Franz, in spite of their laughter at their brother's garment, begged their mother to make for each of them a similar dress. While on the island we paid a visit to the colonists whom we had established there the previous autumn. All was well; we could perceive by the footprints that the antelopes had discovered and made use of the shelter we had erected for them, and feeling that we could do nothing more we scattered handfuls of maize and salt, and strolled across to the other side of the island. The shore was covered with lovely shells, many of which, with beautiful pieces of delicate coral, the boys collected for their museum; strewn by the edge of the water too lay a great quantity of seaweed of various colors, and as the mother declared that much of it was of use, the boys assisted her to collect it and store it in the boat. As we pulled back to the land I was surprised to see that my wife chose from among the seaweed a number of curious leaves with edges notched like a saw. When we reached home she carefully washed these and dried them in the oven. There was evidently something mysterious about this preparation, and my curiosity at length prompted me to make an attempt to discover the secret. "Are these leaves to form a substitute for tobacco?" said I; "do you so long for its refreshing smell?" My wife smiled, for her dislike to tobacco was well known, and she answered in the same jocular tone: "Do you not think that a mattress stuffed with these leaves would be very cool in summer?" The twinkle in her eyes showed me that my curiosity must still remain unsatisfied, but it nevertheless became greater than ever. The boys and I had one day made a long and fatiguing expedition, and, tired out, we flung ourselves down in the veranda. As we lay there resting, we heard the mother's voice. "Could any of you enjoy a little jelly?" She presently appeared, bearing a porcelain dish laden with most lovely transparent jelly. Cut with a spoon and laid before us it quivered and glittered in the light.