"By this time the boys were up, and I observed Jack very quietly and busily occupied with his knife about the spot where Fritz's jackal lay. Watching his proceedings, I saw that he had cut two long, narrow strips of the animal's skin, which he cleaned and scraped very carefully, and then taking a handful of great nails out of his pocket, he stuck them through the skin, points outward, after which he cut strips of canvas sailcloth, twice as broad as the thongs, doubled them, and laid them on the raw side of the skin, so as to cover the broad, flat nail heads. At this point of the performance, Master Jack came to me with the agreeable request that I would kindly stitch the canvas and (moist) skin together for him. I gave him needles and thread, but could not think of depriving him of the pleasure of doing it himself. "However, when I saw how good-humoredly he persevered in the work with his awkward, unskillful fingers, I took pity on him, and conquering the disgust I felt, finished lining the skin dog-collars he had so ingeniously contrived. After this, I was called upon to complete in the same way a fine belt of skin he had made for himself. I advised him to think of some means by which the skin might be kept from shrinking. "Ernest, although rather treating Jack's manufacture with ridicule, proposed a sensible enough plan, which Jack forthwith put into execution. He nailed the skin, stretched flat, on a board, and put it in the sun to dry. "My scheme of a journey was agreed to joyously by my young companions. Preparations were instantly set on foot: weapons and provisions provided; the two elder boys carrying guns, while they gave me charge of the water flask, and a small hatchet. "Leaving everything in as good order as we could at the tent, we proceeded toward the stream, accompanied by the dogs. Turk, who had accompanied you on your first expedition, seemed immediately to understand that we wished to pursue the same route, and proudly led the way. "As I looked at my two young sons, each with his gun, and considered how much the safety of the party depended on these little fellows, I felt grateful to you, dear husband, for having acquainted them in childhood with the use of firearms. "Filling our water-jar, we crossed the stream, and went on to the height, whence, as you described, a lovely prospect is obtained, at the sight of which a pleasurable sensation of buoyant hope, to which I had long been a stranger, awoke within my breast. "A pretty little wood in the distance attracted my notice particularly, and thither we directed our course. But soon finding it impossible to force our way through the tall, strong grass, which grew in dense luxuriance higher than the children's heads, we turned toward the open beach on our left, and following it, we reached a point much nearer the little wood, when, quitting the strand, we made toward it.