| Share page |
|
RIDING ON AN OSTRICH 2S3 |
||
|
When all our provisions were gathered in. and we felt sure that we could get through the winter without being starved, we began our manufacture of hats.
I cut a wooden head, which we divided into two parts, and on which we spread a thick layer of soft paste, composed of rat skin and the glue of fishes. We let it dry, and as it took the exact impress of the mould, we obtained a sort of cap.
' Is it a hat, a bonnet, or a cap ?' asked Ernest, laughing.
' Hat or cap,' said Fritz, ' it is of a most abominable colour, and I vote that it should be dyed.'
' Yes,' replied Ernest; ' Let it be red, it's the poet's colour.'
Francis preferred gray, Jack green, as being the favourite colour of the hunter, while Fritz—the prudent Fritz—voted for white, as he had read that this attracted less heat than any colour.
' Fritz's choice showed his judgment,' I said, ' Jack picked out his more for ornament than use; and as for Ernest, his it must be, as it is the only one I can manage.'
I turned to the cochineal, and soon gave the hat a brilliant red tint. I adorned it with a couple of ostrich plumes, and my wife passed a ribbon round |
||