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WE MOVE TO THE, FOREST 89
the same branch. Then I knew that, when the ladder was finished, we should at any rate be able to pull it up to the bough.
So I turned my attention to the ladder itself, a much more difficult job. The first thing was to cut a length of about one hundred feet from our stock of ropes; this I divided into two equal pieces, which I laid on the ground at the distance of a foot from each other. I told Fritz to cut the canes we had brought in pieces each two feet in length. As he did this, Ernest handed them to me one after another ; and I inserted them into my ropes at the distance of twelve inches apart, fixing them with knots in the rope. Jack, at the same time, by my order, drove into each a long nail at both ends to prevent their slipping out again. Thus, in a very short time, we had made a ladder of forty steps, firm and compact, which we all regarded with joyful surprise. I now tied it with strong knots to the end of the rope which hung from the tree, and pulled it up till it reached the branch, and rested so well upon it, that the exclamations of the boys resounded from all sides, Everyone wished to be the first to ascend, but I decided that it should be Jack, he being the nimblest and the lightest among them. Accord- |
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