A great
pile of unripe, green cocoa-nuts (called "water-cocoa-nuts" in Jamaica)
lay in one corner, with a negro boy standing guard over them. Up would
trot a dripping little white urchin, and pant out, "Please open me a
nut, Arthur," and with one stroke of his machete the young negro would
decapitate a nut, which the little fellow would drain thirstily and
then rush back to his game. The schoolmaster told me that he always
gave his boys cocoa-nut water at their dinner, as it never causes a
chill, and as there were thousands of trees growing round the school,
it was an inexpensive luxury. One of the duties of Arthur, the negro
boy, was to supply the school with nuts, and I saw him going up the
trees like a monkey, with the aid of a sling of rope round his leg.
I and my nephew went out fishing on the reef at dawn, before the
breeze sprang up. The water was like glass, and we could see the
bottom quite clearly at nine fathoms. It was like fishing in an
aquarium. The most impossible marine monsters! Turquoise-blue fish;
grey and pink fish; some green and scarlet, others as yellow as
canaries. We could follow our lines right down to the bottom, and see
the fish hook themselves amongst the jagged coral, till the
bottom-boards of the boat looked like a rainbow with our victims.
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