I encouraged the boys to try their ingenuity in
making flasks and cups, by covering moulds of clay with the gum, as I
had explained to them. For my part, I took a pair of old stockings, and
filled them with sand for my mould, which I covered with a coating of
mud, and left to dry in the sun. I cut out a pair of soles of buffalo
leather, which I first hammered well, and then fastened with small tacks
to the sole of the stocking, filling up the spaces left with the gum, so
as to fix it completely. Then, with a brush of goats hair, I covered it
with layer upon layer of the elastic gum, till I thought it sufficiently
thick. It was easy after this to remove the sand, the stocking, and the
hardened mud, to shake out the dust, and I had a pair of waterproof
boots, without seam, and fitting as well as if I had employed an English
shoemaker. My boys were wild with joy, and all begged for a pair; but I
wished first to try their durability, compared with those of buffalo
leather. I began to make a pair of boots for Fritz, using the skin drawn
from the legs of the buffalo we had killed; but I had much more
difficulty than with the caoutchouc. I used the gum to cover the seams,
so that the water might not penetrate. They were certainly not elegant
as a work of art, and the boys laughed at their brother's awkward
movements in them; but their own productions, though useful vessels,
were not models of perfection.
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