Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss (poetry books to read txt) 📗

willingly agreed to assist her in the construction

of the dress.

 

The garment we produced was most curious in appearance, and I must own

that I doubted its efficiency. It was like a double waistcoat, made of

linen prepared with a solution of india-rubber, the seams being

likewise coated with caoutchouc, and the whole rendered perfectly

airtight. We so arranged it that one little hole was left, by means of

which air could be forced into the space between the outer covering and

the lining, and the dress inflated.

 

Meanwhile I perceived with pleasure the rapid vegetation the climate

was producing. The seeds we had scattered had germinated, and were now

promising magnificent crops. The verandah, too, was looking pleasant

with its gay and sweet-scented creepers, which were already aspiring to

the summit of the pillars. The air was full of birds, the earth seemed

teeming with life.

 

The dress was at length completed and Fritz, one fine afternoon,

offered publicly to prove it. We all assembled on the beach, the boy

gravely donned and inflated the garment, and amidst roars of laughter

from his brothers, entered the water. Quickly and easily he paddled

himself across the bay towards Shark Island, whither we followed in one

of our boats.

 

The experiment was most successful, and Ernest, Jack and Franz, in

spite of their laughter at their brother’s garment, begged their mother

to make for each of them a similar dress.

 

While on the island we paid a visit to the colonists whom we had

established there the previous autumn. All were well; we could

perceive by the footprints that the antelopes had discovered and made

use of the shelter we had erected for them, and feeling that we could

do nothing more we scattered handfuls of maize and salt, and strolled

across to the other side of the island.

 

The shore was covered with lovely shells, many of which, with

beautiful pieces of delicate coral, the boys collected for their

museum; strewn by the edge of the water too lay a great quantity of

seaweed of various colours, and as the mother declared that much of it

was of use, the boys assisted her to collect it and store it in the

boat.

 

As we pulled back to the land I was surprised to see that my wife

chose from among the seaweed a number of curious leaves with edges

notched like a saw. When we reached home she carefully washed these and

dried them in the oven. There was evidently something mysterious about

this preparation and my curiosity at length prompted me to make an

attempt to discover the secret.

 

`Are these leaves to form a substitute for tobacco?’ said I. `Do you so

long for its refreshing smell?’

 

My wife smiled, for her dislike of tobacco was well known, and she

answered in the same jocular tone:

 

`Do you not think that a mattress stuffed with these leaves would be

very cool in summer?’

 

The twinkle in her eyes showed me that my curiosity must still remain

unsatisfied, but it nevertheless became greater than ever.

 

The boys and I had one day made a long and fatiguing expedition, and,

tired out, we flung ourselves down in the verandah. As we lay there

resting, we heard the mother’s voice:

 

`Could any of you enjoy a little jelly?’ She presently appeared,

bearing a porcelain dish laden with most lovely transparent jelly. Cut

with a spoon and laid before us it quivered and glittered in the light.

 

`Ambrosia!’ exclaimed Fritz, tasting it. It was indeed delicious, and,

still marvelling from whence my wife could have obtained a dish so

rare, we disposed of all that she had set before us.

 

`Aha,’ laughed my wife, `is not this an excellent substitute for

tobacco, far more refreshing than the nasty weed itself. Behold the

produce of my mysterious seaweed.’

 

`My dear wife,’ exclaimed I, `this dish is indeed a masterpiece of

culinary art, but where had you met with it? What put it into your

head?’

 

`While staying with my Dutch friends at the Cape,’ replied she,

 

`I often saw it, and at once recognized the leaves on Shark Island.

Once knowing the secret, the preparation of the dish is extremely

simple: the leaves are soaked in water, fresh every day, for a week,

and then boiled for a few hours with orange juice, citron and sugar.’

 

We were all delighted with the delicacy, and thanked my wife for it

most heartily, the boys declaring that they must at once go off again

to the island to collect as many of the leaves as they could find. I

agreed to accompany them, for I wished to examine the plantations we

had made there.

 

All were flourishing, the palms and mangroves had shot up in a most

marvellous manner, and many of the seeds which I had cast at random

amongst the clefts in the rocks had germinated, and promised to clothe

the nakedness of the frowning boulders.

 

A way up among the rocks too we discovered a bright sparkling spring of

delicious water, at which, from the footprints around, we saw that the

antelopes must have refreshed themselves.

 

Finding everything so satisfactory, we were naturally anxious to

discover how our colony and plantations on Whale Island had fared. It

was evident at a glance that the rabbits had increased, the young and

tender shoots of the trees bore the marks of many greedy mischievous

little teeth. The cocoanut palms alone had they spared.

 

Such depredations as these could not be allowed, and with the help of

the boys I erected round each stem a hedge of prickly thorn, and then

prepared again to embark; before we did so, however, I noticed that

some of the seaweed had also been gnawed by the rabbits, and wondering

what it could have been to tempt them, I collected some of it to

examine more fully at home.

 

The skeleton of the whale, too, attracted our attention, for picked

clean by the birds and bleached by sun and rain the bones had been

purified to a most perfect whiteness. Thinking that the joints of the

vertebrae might be made of use, I separated some ten or twelve, and

rolled them down to the boat, and then returned to the shore, towing

them after us.

 

A scheme now occupied my mind for the construction of a crushing

machine which would prove of the greatest service to us. I knew that to

make such a machine of stone was far beyond my power, but it had struck

me that the vertebrae of the whale might serve my purpose.

 

I determined next morning to look out a tree from which I might cut the

blocks of wood that I should require to raise my crushers.

 

My expedition was destined to be a solitary one, for when I went to the

stables for a horse, I discovered that the boys had gone off by

themselves with their guns and traps, and had left to me a choice

between the bull and buffalo.

 

With Storm, therefore, I was fain to be content. I crossed the bridge,

but as I reached the cassava field I noticed to my great annoyance that

it had been overrun and laid waste by some mischievous animals. I

examined the footprints, and seeing that they greatly resembled those

of pigs, determined to follow the trail, and see who these invaders of

our territory would prove to be.

 

The track led me on for some way until I almost lost sight of it near

our old potato field. For some time I hunted backwards and forwards

without seeing a sign of the animals; at length a loud barking from

Floss and Bruno, who were with me, announced that they had been

discovered.

 

The whole family of our old sow, and she herself, were standing at bay,

showing their teeth and grunting so savagely, that the dogs feared to

approach them.

 

I raised my gun and fired twice amongst the herd: two of the pigs

fell, and the rest fled, followed by the dogs. I picked up the pigs,

and calling back the pursuers, continued my way through the forest.

 

A tree suited to my purpose was soon found; I marked it, and returned

home.

 

Ernest, who had remained at home, assisted me to flay the young

porkers, and I handed them over to my wife to prepare for supper; by

which time I hoped the other lads would have returned.

 

Late in the evening we heard the sounds of trampling hoofs, and

presently Jack appeared, thundering along upon his two-legged steed,

followed in the distance by Fritz and Franz. These latter carried upon

their cruppers game-bags, the contents of which were speedily

displayed: four birds, a kangaroo, twenty muskrats, a monkey, two

hares and half a dozen beaver rats, were laid before me. Besides these,

Fritz threw down, without a word of explanation, a bundle of thistles.

 

The boys seemed almost wild with excitement at the success of their

expedition, and presently Jack exclaimed:

 

`Oh, father, you can’t think what grand fun hunting on an ostrich is;

we flew along like the wind; sometimes I could scarcely breathe, we

were going at such a rate, and I was obliged to shut my eyes because of

the terrific rush of air; really, father, you must make me a mask with

glass eyes to ride with, or I shall be blinded one of these fine days.’

 

`Indeed!’ replied I, `I must do no such thing.’ `Why not?’ asked he,

with a look of amazement upon his face.

 

`For two reasons: firstly, because I do not consider that I must do

anything that you demand; and, secondly, because I think that you are

very capable of doing it yourself. However, I must congratulate you

upon your abundant supply of game; you must have indeed worked hard.

 

`Yet I wish that you would let me know when you intend starting on such

a long expedition as this; you forget that though you yourselves know

that you are quite safe, and that all is going on well, yet that we at

home are kept in a constant state of anxiety. Now, off with you, and

look to your animals, and then you may find supper ready.’

 

Presently the boys returned, and we prepared for a most appetizing meal

which the mother set before us.

 

While we were discussing the roast pig, and washing it down with

fragrant mead, Fritz described the day’s expedition.

 

They had set their traps near Woodlands, and had there captured the

muskrats, attracting them with small carrots, while with other traps,

baited with fish and earthworms, they had caught several beaver rats,

and a duck-billed platypus. Hunting and fishing had occupied the rest

of the day, and it was with immense pride that Jack displayed the

kangaroo which he had run down with his swift courser.

 

Contributions to the garden had not been forgotten, and Fritz handed

over to his mother several cuttings from cinnamon and sweet-apple

trees. Finally, when all the other treasures had been displayed, Fritz

begged me to examine his thistles which he had gathered, thinking, he

said, that it was a plant used in the manufacture of wool.

 

He was perfectly right, for I recognized it at once as the `fuller’s

teazle’, a plant whose sharp little thorns, which cover the stem and

leaves, are used to raise the nap of cloth. We resolved to be up

betimes the following morning, that we might attend to the preparation

of the booty, and as I now noticed that the boys were all becoming

extremely drowsy, I closed the day with evening devotions.