Swiss Family Robinson, Johann David Wyss [tools of titans ebook txt] 📗

ship,

packed together, and ready to set up.

 

When the great affairs were settled, we still found in all directions

work to be done. Shelves, tables, benches, movable steps, cupboards,

pegs, door-handles and bolts—there seemed no end to our requirements,

and we often thought of the enormous amount of work necessary to

maintain the comforts and conveniences of life which at home we had

received as matters of course.

 

But in reality, the more there was to do the better; and I never

ceased contriving fresh improvements, being fully aware of the

importance of constant employment as a means of strengthening and

maintaining the health of mind and body. This, indeed, with a

consciousness of continual progress toward a desirable end, is found to

constitute the main element of happiness.

 

Our rocky home was greatly improved by a wide porch which I made along

the whole front of our rooms and entrances, by levelling the ground to

form a terrace, and sheltering it with a verandah of bamboo, supported

by pillars of the same.

 

Ernest and Franz were highly successful as librarians. The books, when

unpacked and arranged, proved to be a most valuable collection, capable

of affording every sort of educational advantage.

 

Besides a variety of books of voyages, travels, divinity, and natural

history (several containing fine coloured illustrations), there were

histories and scientific works, as well as standard fictions in several

languages; also a good assortment of maps, charts, mathematical and

astronomical instruments, and an excellent pair of globes.

 

I foresaw much interesting study on discovering that we possessed the

grammars and dictionaries of a great many languages, a subject for

which we all had a taste. With French we were well acquainted. Fritz

and

 

Ernest had begun to learn English at school, and made further progress

during a visit to England. Their mother, who had once been intimate

with a Dutch family, could speak that language pretty well.

 

After a great deal of discussion, we agreed to study different

languages, so that in the event of meeting with people of other

nations, there should be at least one of the family able to

communicate with them.

 

All determined to improve our knowledge of German and French. The two

elder boys were to study English and Dutch with their mother.

 

Ernest, already possessing considerable knowledge of Latin, wished to

continue to study it, so as to be able to make use of the many works on

natural history and medicine written in that language.

 

Jack announced that he meant to learn Spanish `because it sounded so

grand and imposing’.

 

I myself was interested in the Malay language, knowing it to be so

widely spoken in the islands of the Eastern Seas, and thinking it as

likely as any other to be useful to us.

 

Our family circle by and by represented Babel in miniature, for scraps

and fragments of all these tongues kept buzzing about our ears from

morning to night, each sporting his newly acquired word or sentence on

every possible occasion, propounding idioms and peculiar expressions

like riddles, to puzzle the rest.

 

In this way, the labour of learning was very considerably lightened,

and everyone came to know a few words of each language.

 

Occasionally we amused ourselves by opening chests and packages

hitherto untouched, and brought unexpected treasures to

light—mirrors, wardrobes, a pair of console tables with polished

marble tops, elegant writing tables and handsome chairs, clocks of

various descriptions, a musical-box, and a chronometer were found; and

by degrees our abode was fitted up like a palace, so that sometimes we

wondered at ourselves, and felt as though we were strutting about in

borrowed plumes.

 

The children begged me to decide on a name for our salt cave dwelling,

and that of Rockburg was chosen unanimously.

 

The weeks of imprisonment passed so rapidly that no one found time hang

heavy on his hands.

 

Books occupied me so much that but little carpentering was done, yet I

made a yoke for the oxen, a pair of cotton-wool carders, and a

spinning-wheel for my wife.

 

As the rainy season drew to a close, the weather for a while became

wilder, and the storms fiercer than ever. Thunder roared, lightning

blazed, torrents rushed towards the sea, which came in raging billows

to meet them, lashed to fury by the tempests of wind which swept the

surface of the deep.

 

The uproar of the elements came to an end at last. Nature resumed her

attitude of repose, her smiling aspect of peaceful beauty; and soon all

traces of the ravages of floods and storms would disappear beneath the

luxuriant vegetation of the tropics.

 

Gladly quitting the sheltering walls of Rockburg to roam once more in

the open air, we crossed Jackal River, for a walk along the coast, and

presently Fritz with his sharp eyes observed something on the small

island near Flamingo Marsh, which was, he said, long and rounded,

resembling a boat bottom upwards.

 

Examining it with the telescope, I could form no other conjecture, and

we resolved to make it the object of an excursion next day, being

delighted to resume our old habit of starting in pursuit of adventure.

The boat was accordingly got in readiness; it required some repairs,

and fresh pitching, and then we made for the point of interest,

indulging in a variety of surmises as to what we should find.

 

It proved to be a huge stranded whale. The island being steep and

rocky, it was necessary to be careful; but we found a landing-place on

the further side. The boys hurried by the nearest way to the beach

where lay the monster of the deep, while I clambered to the highest

point of the islet, which commanded a view of the mainland from

Rockburg to Falconhurst.

 

On rejoining my sons, I found them only halfway to the great fish, and

as I drew near they shouted in high glee:

 

`Oh, father, just look at the glorious shells and coral branches we are

finding! How does it happen that there are such quantities?’

 

`Only consider how the recent storms have stirred the ocean to its

depths! No doubt thousands of shellfish have been detached from their

rocks and dashed in all direction by the waves, which have thrown

ashore even so huge a creature as the whale yonder.’

 

`Yes; isn’t he a frightful great brute!’ cried Fritz. `Ever so much

larger than he seemed from a distance. The worst of it is, one does not

well see what use to make of the huge carcase.’

 

`Why, make train oil, to be sure,’ said Ernest. `I can’t say he’s a

beauty, though, and it is much pleasanter to gather these lovely

shells, than to cut up blubber.’

 

`Well, let us amuse ourselves with them for the present,’ said I, `but

in the afternoon, when the sea is calmer, we will return with the

necessary implements, and see if we can turn the stranded whale to good

account.’

 

We were soon ready to return to the boat, but Ernest had a fancy for

remaining alone on the island till we came back, and asked my

permission to do so, that he might experience, for an hour or two, the

sensations of Robinson Crusoe.

 

To this, however, I would not consent, assuring him that our fate, as a

solitary family, gave him quite sufficient idea of shipwreck on an

uninhabited island, and that his lively imagination must supply the

rest.

 

The boys found it hard work to row back, and began to beg of me to

exert my wonderful inventive powers in contriving some kind of rowing

machine.

 

`You lazy fellows!’ returned I. `Give me the great clockwork out of a

church tower, perhaps I might be able to relieve your labours.’

 

`Oh father!’ cried Fritz. `Don’t you know there are iron wheels in the

clockwork of the large kitchen-jacks? I’m sure mother would give them

up, and you could make something out of them, could you not?’

 

`By the time I have manufactured a rowing-machine out of a

roasting-jack, I think your arms will be pretty well inured to the use

of your oars! However, I am far from despising the hint, my dear

Fritz.’

 

`Is coral of any use?’ demanded Jack suddenly.

 

`In former times it was pounded and used by chemists; but it is now

chiefly used for various ornaments, and made into beads for necklaces

et cetera. As such, it is greatly prized by savages, and were we to

fall in with natives, we might very possibly find a store of coral

useful in bartering with them.

 

`For the present we will arrange these treasures of the deep in our

library, and make them the beginning of a Museum of Natural History,

which will afford us equal pleasure and instruction.’

 

`One might almost say that coral belongs at once to the animal,

vegetable, and mineral kingdoms,’ remarked Fritz; `it is hard like

stone, it has stems and branches like a shrub, and I believe tiny

insects inhabit the cells, do they not, father?’

 

`You are right, Fritz; coral consists of the calcereous cells of

minute animals, so built up as to form a tree-like structure.

 

`The coral fishery gives employment to many men in the Persian Gulf,

the Mediterranean Sea, and other places. The instrument commonly used

consists of two heavy beams of wood, secured together at right angles,

and loaded with stones. Hemp and netting are attached to the under side

of the beams, to the middle of which is fastened one end of a strong

rope, by which the apparatus is let down from a boat, and guided to the

spots where the coral is most abundant.

 

`The branches of the coral become entangled in the hemp and network;

they are broken off from the rock, and are drawn to the surface of the

water.

 

`Left undisturbed, these coral insects, labouring incessantly, raise

foundations, on which, in course of time, fertile islands appear,

clothed with verdure, and inhabited by man.’

 

`Why father, here we are at the landing-place!’ exclaimed Jack.

 

`It has seemed quite easy to pull since you began to tell us such

interesting things.’

 

`Very interesting, indeed; but did you notice that the wind had

changed, Jack?’ remarked Ernest as he shipped his oar.

 

The animated recital of our adventures, the sight of the lovely shells

and corals, and the proposed work for the afternoon, inspired my wife

and Franz with a great wish to accompany us.

 

To this I gladly consented, only stipulating that we should go

provided with food, water and a compass. `For,’ said I, `the sea has

only just ceased from its raging, and being at the best of times of

uncertain and capricious nature, we may chance to be detained on the

island, or forced to land at a considerable distance from home.’

 

Dinner was quickly dispatched, and preparations set on foot. The more

oil we could obtain the better, for a great deal was used in the large

lantern which burnt day and night in the recesses of the cave;

therefore all available casks and barrels were pressed into the

service; many, of course, once full of pickled herrings, potted pigeons

and other winter stores, were now empty, and we took a goodly fleet of

these in tow.

 

Knives, hatchets, and the boys’ climbing buskins, were put on board,

and we set forth, the labour of the oar being greater than ever, now

that our freight was so much increased.

 

The sea being calm, and the tide suiting better, we found it easy to

land close to the whale; my first care was to place the boat,