Page 50

 
Chapter IV: DIFFICULTIES 
NEVER TOLD ME WHETHER THE NAME OF FRIEDO, 
rang from his lips in that moment of discovery, 
*emeditated one or came to him as a sudden in- 
It was the perfect name for our home, being 
i of his name and mine together, but meaning more 
       than this, since Friede in the German language is the 
word for peace. Thus it embraced, this name, our oneness and our 
common dream. 
  In the first burst of enthusiasm, I fear I was much inclined to 
believe that the practical establishment of Friedo would more or 
less take care of itself. It did not immediately occur to me, so lost 
was I in the beauty of the place, that a cleating must be made, 
this alone an enormous work, for there were hardly ten yards of 
ground on which even a child could have walked upright. Fred- 
erick, no less in love with the place than I, did not allow himself 
to be so foolishly carried away, but immediately began a systematic 
plan of action. He measured out the probable extent of clearing 
necessary to contain even a most modest shack and essential garden 
round it, appraised the possibilities of the apparently rich soil, and 
estimated with surprising accuracy the time it would take for 
him and Hugo to clear a few square yards of jungle for a minimum 
garden plot. 
  The natural clearing around the brook was no more than twenty 
by thirty feet in size, and swampy with the underground brook 
immediately below the surface of the earth. Frederick looked 
round with a touch of dismay at the size of some of the boulders 
he would have to move, and there was one huge acacia tree which 
must also go. 
  The way to the spring bore traces of having been trodden hard 
by the hoofs of many animals. It was obviously a favorite watering 
place of the wild herds, and we distinguished treads of cattle, swine, 
asses and dogs. The dense brush hid the skeletons of many poor 
beasts, some shot by hunters, probably, as they came down to 
drink, some which had no doubt withdrawn to that pleasant oasis 
when they felt that their time had come and lain down to die. 
                              50