It ought to, for the sake of the splendid country we are going through--which is yours, by the way, and into which you are to enter after so many years' absence." "Yes, Minha; yes," replied Joam.

"It is rather as if we were returning from exile--voluntary exile! Do your best; I approve beforehand of what you do." On Minha and Lina, to whom were added of their own free will Manoel on the one side and Fragoso on the other, devolved the care of decorating the inside of the house.

With some imagination and a little artistic feeling the result was highly satisfactory.
The best furniture of the fazenda naturally found its place within, as after arriving in Para they could easily return it by one of the _igariteos_.

Tables, bamboo easy-chairs, cane sofas, carved wood shelves, everything that constituted the charming furniture of the tropics, was disposed with taste about the floating home.

No one is likely to imagine that the walls remained bare.