Ernest, knowing something of geometry and land-surveying, was able to
give them some useful hints, which enabled them to complete their work
successfully. Leaving them to do this, I employed myself in covering in
my long colonnade. After I had placed on my columns a plank cut in
arches, which united them, and was firmly nailed to them, I extended
from it bamboos, placed sloping against the rock, and secured to it by
cramps of iron, the work of my young smiths. When my bamboo roof was
solidly fixed, the canes as close as possible, I filled the interstices
with a clay I found near the river, and poured gum over it; I had thus
an impervious and brilliant roof, which appeared to be varnished, and
striped green and brown. I then raised the floor a foot, in order that
there might be no damp, and paved it with the square stones I had
preserved when we cut the rock. It must be understood that all this was
the work of many days. I was assisted by Jack and Fritz, and by Ernest
and Francis alternately, one always remaining with his mother, who was
still unable to walk. Ernest employed his time, when at home, in making
the straw bonnet, without either borrowing his brother's head for a
model, or letting any of them know what he was doing. Nevertheless, he
assisted his brothers with their pavilions by his really valuable
knowledge.
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