A huge liana bound all the parasites together; several times it made the round of the house, clinging on to every angle, encircling every projection, forking, uniting, it everywhere threw out its irregular branchlets, and allowed not a bit of the house to be seen beneath its enormous clusters of bloom.
As a delicate piece of attention, the author of which can be easily recognized, the end of the cipo spread out before the very window of the young mulatto, as though a long arm was forever holding a bouquet of fresh flowers across the blind.
To sum up, it was as charming as could be; and as Yaquita, her daughter, and Lina were content, we need say no more about it.
"It would not take much to make us plant trees on the jangada," said Benito.
"Oh, trees!" ejaculated Minha.
"Why not ?" replied Manoel.

"Transported on to this solid platform, with some good soil, I am sure they would do well, and we would have no change of climate to fear for them, as the Amazon flows all the time along the same parallel." "Besides," said Benito, "every day islets of verdure, torn from the banks, go drifting down the river.

Do they not pass along with their trees, bushes, thickets, rocks, and fields, to lose themselves in the Atlantic eight hundred leagues away?
Why, then, should we not transform our raft into a floating garden ?" "Would you like a forest, miss ?" said Fragoso, who stopped at nothing.
"Yes, a forest!" cried the young mulatto; "a forest with its birds and its monkeys----" "Its snakes, its jaguars!" continued Benito.
"Its Indians, its nomadic tribes," added Manoel, "and even its cannibals!" "But where are you going to, Fragoso ?" said Minha, seeing the active barber making a rush at the bank.
"To look after the forest!" replied Fragoso.
"Useless, my friend," answered the smiling Minha.

"Manoel has given me a nosegay and I am quite content.

It is true," she added, pointing to the house hidden beneath the flowers, "that he has hidden our house in his betrothal bouquet!".