Ginger, vanilla, and other things would no doubt flourish here. I
do not believe that any of them would give an extraordinary rate of
profit, for though land is cheap, labor is scarce. Still it would
be interesting, and would cause a little variety and amusement in
our work, which is always an important point, and no doubt there
would be generally some profit, though occasionally we may make a
total failure."
Very often at daybreak the girls would go down with their brothers
to the river, and watch the waterfowl on its surface; they were so
amusing as they dabbled and played in the water, unsuspicious of
danger. Their favorites, though, were the beautiful scarlet
flamingoes, with their slender legs, and their long, graceful
necks, and whose great employment seemed to be to stand quiet in
the water, where it was only two or three inches deep, and to preen
their glossy red feathers. Over and over again the girls wished
that they could get a few waterfowl, especially flamingoes, to tame
them, in order that they might swim on the dam pond and come and be
fed; and the boys had several talks with each other as to the most
practicable way of capturing some of them. At last they thought of
making a sort of enclosure of light boughs, with an entrance into
which birds could easily pass, but through which they could not
easily return, and to scatter grain up to and into the enclosure,
to entice the birds to enter.
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