Willis the pilot Author:Johann David Wyss Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. A LANDSCAPE — BAD HOUSES AND SMILING HOUSES—POLITENESS IN CHINA — EIGHT SOUPS AT DESSERT—WIND MERCHANTS— ANOTHER IDEA OF THE PILOT'S—SUSAN, VICE S... more »OPHIA. Towards five o'clock next morning everything about Rockhouse was beginning to assume life and motion — within, all its inhabitants were already astir — without, little remained of the recent storm and inundation except that refreshing coolness, which, conjointly with the purified air, infuses fresh vigor, not only into men, but also into every living thing. The citrons, the aloes, and the Spanish jasmines perfumed the landscape. The flexible palms, the tall bananas, with their umbrageous canopy, the broad, pendant-leaved mangoes, and all the rank but luxuriant vegetation that clothed the land to the water's edge, waved majestically under the gentle breeze that blew from the sea. The Jackal River unfolded its silvery band through the roses, bamboos, and cactii that lined its banks. The sun — for that luminary plays an important part in all Nature's festivals — darted its rays on the soil still charged with vapor. Diamond drops sparkled in the cups of the flowers and on the points of the leaves. In the distance, pines, cedars, and richly-laden cocoa-nut trees filled up the background with their dark foliage. The swans displayed their- brillianl plumage on the lake, the boughs of the trees were alive with parroquets and other winged creatures of the tropics. Add to the charms of this scene, Mrs. Becker returning from the prairie with a jar of warm, frothy milk — Mrs. Wolston and Mary busied in a multiplicity of household occupations, to which their white hands and ringing voices gave elegance and grace — Sophia tying a rose to the neck ...« less