"Real Refreshing That!" He Said, Drawing A Red Handkerchief From His Belt And Mopping His Spattered Face And Beard, Adding, As He Passed The Damp Handkerchief Over His Ears And Neck With Chuckling Exaggeration:

"Tell you what!

A fizz 'ud be a great thing if you were short of water. You could get a drink and have a good wash-up with the one cupful."

With the "fizz," Dan's interest in education revived, and after dinner he took up the role of showman of the Roper scenery once more, and had us scrambling over boulders and cliffs along the dry bed of the creek that runs back from the Punch Bowl, until, having clambered over its left bank into a shady glen, we found ourselves beneath the gem of the Roper - a wide-spreading banyan tree, with its propped-up branches turning and twisting in long winding leafy passages and balconies, over a feathery grove of young palm trees that had crept into its generous shade.

Here and there the passages and balconies graded one to another's level, all being held together by innumerable stays and props, sent down from branch to branch, and from branches to the grassy turf beneath; and one sweeping limb, coming almost to the ground in a gentle incline before twisting away and up again, made ascent so simple that the men-folk sent the missus for a "stroll in midair," sure that no white woman's feet had yet trodden those winding ways. And as she strolled about the tree - not climbed - hindered only by her holland riding-skirt, Brown followed, anxiously but cautiously.

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