The Swiss Family Robinson-Wyss Johann PDF
The Swiss Family Robinson-Wyss Johann PDF
The Swiss Family Robinson-Wyss Johann PDF
It was the seventh day of the storm. We didn't know where we were.
Everyone on the ship believed that death was very near. My wife and my
four young sons moved close to me.
'My dear children,' I said, 'I don't think we're going to die.'
Then, above the noise of the storm, I heard a cry: 'Land! Land!'
We heard someone shout, 'There's no hope now. Let down the boats.'
'Be brave, my boys,' I said. 'The land isn't far away. We'll save
ourselves - we'll find a way. I'll see what we can do.'
I left our room and looked around, but there were no sailors on the
ship. They were all in boats on the sea. We were alone!
I returned to my family. 'It's all right,' I said. 'The front part of the ship
is between two rocks, so it's above the water. Tomorrow the sea will be
calmer and we'll be able to reach the land.'
The next day, it was not as windy and the sky was clear. We could see
that we were near land.
'Now,' I said, 'let's go round the ship. Let's look for things that will
help us to reach the land. We need food and water too. Then we'll meet
again here.'
Fritz, my oldest boy, brought back guns and gunpowder. My second
son, Ernest, found a box of tools, a lot of nails, a big knife, some small
knives and some other things. The box was very heavy, but Fritz helped him
with it.
When my third son, Jack, opened the door to one of the rooms, two
big dogs jumped out at him. They were quite friendly and he brought them
with him.
'Good news,' she said. 'A donkey, two goats, a pig, six sheep and
some chickens are still alive.'
I said, 'Those will all be useful - but not the dogs. They'll eat too
much.'
'But Father,' said Jack, 'they'll help us to catch animals for food when
we reach the land.'
At last everything was ready, and we lowered the boat into the sea. It
was too late to leave the ship that night so I tied one end of a long rope to
our boat and the other end to the ship. Then we had a meal and went to bed.
CHAPTER TWO
The Island
We all woke up early the next morning. I called the children together
and said, 'First, we must feed the animals. I hope we'll be able to come back
for them later. Then let's take everything that will be useful to us.'
At the last minute my wife came, carrying a big bag. I didn't ask her
what was in it.
At first, the boat turned round and round, but after a time I learned to
sail it.
'Look!' cried Fritz, as we came nearer the land. 'Those are coconuts.
We'll have coconuts to eat.'
'They know the best place to land,' I said. 'I'll follow them.'
Three of the boys jumped on to the beach. Then they helped Franz to
follow them. We took everything out of the boat and freed the chickens.
Then I cut some wood from the trees, put it in the ground and made a tent
from the sailcloth.
'Now,' I said to the children, 'go and bring some dry grass for our
beds.'
While they were doing this, I found some big stones for a fireplace. I
soon made a good fire, using dry wood from the beach. My wife got a pot
of water from the river and put it on the fire. Then, helped by little Franz,
she began to cook a meal.
Fritz took a gun to the other side of the river. Ernest went to the right
along the beach and Jack went to the left. Suddenly, I heard Jack shouting. I
took a gun and ran to help him. I found him standing in water up to his
knees.
I laughed. Then I hit the large shellfish with my gun and freed Jack. It
was only holding on to his clothing, so he wasn't hurt.
Just then, Ernest came. 'I've found some things that are good to eat
too. But I need help to get them.'
'They're shellfish too, but I can't get them off the rocks. We'll take
them later, after our meal.'
'The food's ready,' said my wife, 'but we should wait for Fritz.'
She looked at her pot. 'How shall we eat it? We can't eat soup with a
knife! We need spoons, but we haven't got any!'
Fritz arrived, so the boys all went to get the shellfish. When they
came back, Jack tried to open one with a knife.
'Put them near the hot fire,' I said, 'and they'll open without your help.'
So we sat down to our meal. We ate the shellfish first, and then we
used the shells as spoons for the soup.
'I've got a plate,' said Ernest, showing her a very big shell. 'I found it
on the beach. There are lots of these shells near the place where I found this
one.'
'Then why,' I asked, 'didn't you bring plates for all of us?'
The sun was going down when we finished our meal. Then my wife
opened her bag from the ship and began to throw corn to the chickens. I
stopped her.
'I'm very glad that you've brought this. But we mustn't give it to the
chickens. We must plant it. Then, when it grows, we can make bread. The
chickens can have other food.'
It was time for everyone to go to bed. We took our guns with us into
the tent.
CHAPTER THREE
'First,' I said, 'we must see if any of the sailors from the ship have
reached land.'
'We don't all need to go,' said my wife. 'You take Fritz. I'll stay here
with the other boys.'
'Yes,' I answered, 'I'll take Turk with us, and Flora can stay with you.'
Those were the names of our dogs.
My wife gave us bags of food to take with us. We walked along the
beach, looking in the sand for signs of other people. But we didn't find any.
Fritz had a gun with him. 'Shall I use the gun?' he asked. 'If they're
near, they'll hear it.'
'No!' I said. 'If there are wild men on the island, they will hear it too.
We don't want them to know we're here.'
We turned away from the beach and walked for about a mile. We
came to a little wood. At every step, we saw a new and beautiful plant.
'What's this strange plant,' asked Fritz, 'with these big things growing
on it?'
'Now we must take out the soft part, inside. We'll leave the shells to
dry in the sun. Then we can make spoons and plates and cooking pots from
them. That's why these plants are so useful.'
'I don't understand how you can make a cooking pot from this. If you
put it on the fire, it'll burn.'
'Ah,' I said, 'but you don't put it on the fire. You fill it with water.
Then you put hot stones into the water, and the water will boil.'
We cut plates and spoons and pots from the gourds, and put them in
the sun. We left signs to ourselves around the place, so we could find it
again later.
We walked to a field of very tall grass. It was growing high above our
heads.
We had to cut our way through the grass. As I touched it, my hands
became very wet. I put a hand to my mouth - then I remembered!
'Come here, Fritz. Cut one of these open and put the soft part in your
mouth.'
'It is sugar,' I answered. 'Let's take some back with us. The others will
be very pleased and surprised.'
'Or perhaps they're laughing at you. Why are you getting so angry
because they're laughing at you? They're right to laugh at an angry boy. And
they aren't useless.'
'How can you make a monkey useful?' Fritz asked.
I threw some stones at the monkeys in the trees, and the monkeys
threw coconuts down at us.
'More useful than an angry boy?' said Fritz. 'But I'm not angry now.
I'll carry the coconuts.'
We came to more coconut trees, and the dog, Turk, ran in front of us.
We heard cries of pain, and angry cries from the monkeys up in the trees.
We saw that Turk had one of the monkeys in his mouth.
Fritz ran to save it. But it was too late - the monkey was dead. Its
baby wasn't far away. It was in the grass, crying out in fear. Then a very
strange thing happened. The baby monkey jumped on to Fritz's back and
held on to his hair.
I laughed. 'It's lost its mother, and so you've become its father. Yes, it's
very similar to its new father!'
I carefully took the monkey off Fritz's back and held it in my arms.
'Can I take it home?' cried Fritz. 'I'll get milk for it from the goats on
the ship, and soon it will learn to find food for itself.'
We returned to the beach, and my wife and the three other boys ran to
meet us. They were very pleased to see the little monkey.
'They're for you to eat,' said Fritz, and he gave the sugar to his
brothers.
A very good meal was waiting for us at the tent. Different sorts of fish
and a bird were cooking over the fire. Franz caught the fish while we were
away. Ernest caught the bird. The fish was very nice, but we didn't like the
taste of Ernest's bird.
The sun was going down when we finished our meal. We all went to
bed - Fritz took the little monkey with him.
CHAPTER FOUR
When I woke up, I said to my wife, 'I don't know what to do first.
There are so many things that we need to do.'
'First,' she said, 'you must bring those animals from the ship. Go with
Fritz. The rest of us will look for a place where we can build a home.'
I said to her, 'We'll have to stay on the ship all night. Tell Ernest to
climb up that high tree. He should tie a piece of cloth to the top. If there's
any danger, pull the cloth down.'
'And you must put up a light in the ship,' said my wife. 'Then I'll
know that you've got there safely.'
We reached the ship quite easily. The animals were in good health and
had enough food. I remembered my wife's words and put up a light. Then
we had some food and went to sleep.
We woke up very early the next morning. We found useful things for
our life on the island.
'We must have plenty of gunpowder,' said Fritz. 'Then we'll be safe if
we meet wild animals or enemies. Later, we'll need...'
'We must think of the present,' I said. 'What do we need now, for these
next few days or weeks? We must take more sailcloth because we need to
make a home. And we must think of food. What food is there on the ship?'
'I've seen a barrel of butter,' said Fritz, 'and there's the ship's bread,
and some meat in salt. But what will we do when the bread's finished? And
the butter will soon go bad.'
'Let's think of the present,' I said. 'We have enough problems to worry
about now. We can think about the future later. Perhaps a ship will come
and take us away.'
But I was wrong. It's always a good idea to prepare for the future. We
didn't know that at the time. So we made some silly mistakes. We didn't
take back things that we needed later.
It was a slow job, getting all these things together. So we had to spend
a second night on the ship.
'We can't put them in the boat,' he said. 'They're too heavy. Can we
make another boat? No, the animals are too big. What can we do? The pig
can swim, but the goats and the donkey can't swim so far.'
'No,' I said, 'we can't make a boat that's big enough. There are a lot of
barrels on the ship - enough for a bigger boat. But we haven't got time to
make one.'
'Barrels!' cried Fritz. 'Let's make a boat for each animal. Let's tie
barrels to the animals. The barrels will hold them up above the water when
we pull them behind the boat!'
'That's possible,' I said. 'Let's try first with one animal and see.'
We tied a barrel to each side of a sheep and put it into the sea. It went
down and down...! Then finally I saw its head above the water, and it began
to swim. When it was tired, it stopped swimming. It stayed there, held up
by the barrels.
Fritz jumped into the sea and tied a rope to the sheep, and we pulled it
back into the ship. We worked very hard and for a time the job seemed
impossible. The pig and the donkey were the most difficult.
'Perhaps we should leave them,' said Fritz. 'We need the goats more
than the other animals.'
We tied barrels to the goats, and then we tried again with the pig and
the donkey. The donkey seemed to understand, but the pig gave us a lot of
trouble.
'The pig's very fat,' said Fritz, 'and pigs are good swimmers. Perhaps
its fat will keep it up in the water.' So we didn't tie barrels to the pig.
At last, we got all the animals into the water. Then we climbed into
the boat and put up the sail.
There was a strong wind, and we soon reached the land. I cut the
barrels from the animals, and they came up on to the beach. They were glad
to be on land again.
My wife and the boys came running. My wife was surprised to see all
the animals, even the pig, safe on the land.
'I didn't think of it,' I answered. 'This was Fritz's plan, not mine.'
CHAPTER FIVE
A New Place
'What did you do, my dear, while Fritz and I were on the ship?' I
asked.
'I found a place for our new home,' said my wife. 'It was impossible to
stay in the tent because it was so hot. And there are no trees here that we
can sit under. So Ernest and Jack took their guns, and we took enough food
with us for the day. The dogs came too.
'There! Now you know my story! I went to look for a new place to
live, and I found one. Promise me that we'll go there tomorrow. We'll make
a home for ourselves in one of those big trees.'
'What!' I said, laughing. 'In a tree? A tree house! We can live under a
tree, but how can we get up into the tree? Fly?'
'You can laugh if you want to. But I'm sure that we can build a small
hut in the branches. We'll think of a way to get up there.'
'Right,' I said. 'We'll all go and see the place tomorrow. Then we'll
think about what we can do.'
***
'The place is on the other side of the river. Mother, Ernest, Jack and
Franz went across on stones. But the donkey and pig can't cross on those
stones, and we can't carry our things across the water. We must build a
bridge. That's the first thing, isn't it?'
'No,' said Ernest. 'First, we must go out to the ship and bring back
wood for the bridge.'
'We don't have to do that,' said Jack. 'There was a lot of wood on the
beach where that shellfish caught me. It's come from other ships, and there
will be more there now.'
Jack was right. We found plenty of wood. We tied together the big
pieces which were useful to us. We pulled them to the mouth of the river.
Then we got the donkey and, with its help, we pulled the pieces of wood up
the river. Finally, they were at the place where we wanted to build our
bridge.
It wasn't easy, but we put three long pieces across the river. Then we
nailed more wood across them. It was very hard work, and we all slept well
that night. The next morning, we got up early and began preparing for our
journey.
We put our pots, food and smaller things into bags and hung them on
each side of the donkey. We put little bags on the goats, but the pig refused
to carry anything. Franz sat on the back of the donkey, so it could not run
away. The boys and I carried the other things that we needed for the first
few days in our new home.
When we were all ready, my wife said, 'We can't leave the chickens
here. If we leave them, we'll lose them all.'
Fritz and Ernest tried to catch the chickens, but it was impossible.
They ran away.
She threw a little corn on the ground, and all the chickens ran to it.
When she threw some more inside the tent, they all went inside. Then,
while they were eating, she closed the tent.
'Now, Jack, you go into the tent. Catch the birds and pass them out to
us. We'll tie their legs and put them in two barrels on the donkey's back.'
***
At last, we were ready to start. We put our other things inside the tent
and closed it carefully.
Fritz and my wife went in front. Next came the donkey, with Franz on
its back, then Jack with the goats. The monkey rode on the goat that gave
him his milk. After him came Ernest and the sheep, and I came last. The
dogs helped us to keep all the animals in line.
The pig did not want to come with us, so we left it behind. But when
it saw us leaving, it came running after us. When we reached the bridge, it
was there too!
We crossed the bridge very carefully. I was worried about the weight
of the donkey, so I went first. The bridge was all right, so the donkey went
next. Then the rest followed. But not the pig! Oh no! The pig refused to go
on to the bridge.
'Yes,' I said, 'I didn't think they were as big as this. This is an excellent
place. If we can make a house in one of these trees, we'll be safe from wild
animals.'
We tied up the animals so they couldn't escape - but not the pig. The
pig lay down and slept. We freed the chickens, and my wife started a fire
and cooked a meal for us.
CHAPTER SIX
After the meal, I said, 'We must sleep on the ground tonight. I can't
see how we can get up into a tree this evening.'
Then I went to the beach with Fritz and Ernest. We looked for the
things that we needed for a ladder. The beach was covered with pieces of
wood of all sizes, carried there from ships by the sea.
'Look at those tall thick plants there!' cried Ernest. 'They're what we
need! Bamboo!'
I cut some bamboo into pieces about six feet long. Then I tied them
together, so I could carry them. Then I cut some straight sticks.
'I can make a bow with this bamboo,' I said. 'And arrows from these
sticks.'
'That branch is about thirty feet high,' I said. 'We've got more than
sixty feet of thick rope and a lot of thin rope. Now we'll put two long pieces
of rope on the ground and we'll cut pieces of bamboo a foot and a half long.
Fritz, you cut the pieces. Ernest will help me with the rope.'
So we began to work.
'Now,' I said, 'we must tie pieces of bamboo across the ropes to make
steps. Then we'll have a rope ladder.'
We worked very hard, and after a few hours our ladder was ready.
Then I made a bow from another piece of bamboo.
'Ernest,' I said, 'make arrows from these sticks. Put a big nail in one
end.'
'Oh!' cried Jack. 'A bow and arrows! What are you going to do with
them? I want to play with them!'
'I'm not making a toy, Jack. I'm going to shoot with this. But soon
you'll all have bows and arrows, because we must be careful with our
gunpowder. When we've used this gunpowder, we won't be able to get any
more. And, if there are dangerous men on the island, we'll need our
gunpowder.'
When the bow and arrows were ready, I tied a long piece of thin rope
to an arrow and shot the arrow up over the branch. It came down on the
other side, carrying the thin rope with it.
'Ah!' said Ernest - he always understood things quickly. 'You'll tie the
rope ladder to this thin rope and pull it up on to the branch. Then you'll hold
it there while someone ties it to the branch.'
'Yes,' I said. 'You climb up there. You're smaller than Fritz. And I
don't think Jack can tie the ladder well enough.'
'That's a good day's work,' I said. 'Now we must tie up the animals,
and we'll sleep at the foot of the tree. Tomorrow we'll begin to build our tree
house.'
I looked. Each chicken was sitting on a step. They were already very
comfortable.
I lit a big fire to keep away dangerous animals. Then I decided to stay
awake and watch.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I was worried, at first. I didn't feel that we were in a very safe place. I
heard a strange sound... No, it was only the movement of the trees. The fire
was getting low... What were those shadows? Was that a wild animal
moving nearer... nearer? I got up and put more wood on the fire. At last, I
felt safer and went to sleep.
It was light when I woke up. All the others were already awake.
'These branches,' I said, 'are thick and close together, and they come
straight out from the tree. The floor of the house can be here, and the tree
will be one of the walls.'
Fritz looked up and said, 'Those higher branches will hold up the roof.
But what sort of roof?'
'We'll put a sail over the branches and bring it down to the floor on
two sides.'
That, as you will hear later, was a great mistake. I was very stupid!
But at the time, Fritz and I were very pleased with our simple plans.
'This fourth side,' I said, ' will be open. We can look out from there.
Perhaps we'll make a place where we can sit outside in the daytime.'
'No, we must pull it up. Now where did I see...? Yes, I remember. It
was in Ernest's box of tools.'
Fritz found the little wheel. We tied it to a branch and pulled up the
pieces of wood. Then I started to make the floor.
***
When evening came, the floor was finished. We hung our sailcloth
over the higher branches and nailed it down to the floor on two sides. On
the fourth side, we could see across the country round us, and plenty of air
could come into the house.
'There!' I said. 'Our house is finished.' Then I saw that there were
more pieces of wood. 'We'll make a table and some chairs from these
tomorrow. Tonight we'll sleep in our new house.'
The three older boys quickly went up the ladder, carrying everything
for their beds. My wife was afraid of the ladder, but she reached the top
safely. Then I took Franz on my back. I untied the ladder from the posts in
the ground, climbed up and pulled the ladder up after me.
'Now we're safe in our Tree House,' said Jack. 'Nothing can climb up
here!'
'There!' said Ernest, pointing to Fritz's bed. 'A monkey can climb up
anywhere!'
I kept my gun by my side. I was still not sure that the animals below
were safe. But the night passed quietly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
'That was a good shot!' said Ernest, picking it up. He was very proud.
'It wasn't good,' I said. 'We can't use our gunpowder like that. We can
use the guns to shoot large animals for food. But for birds and small
animals, we must use bows and arrows. Look at the bow and arrow that I've
made, Ernest. Try to make better ones - and learn to use them.'
***
When midday came, we put some barrels round the new table. We
were ready to eat our first meal at it.
'Let's start. If they come late, they won't have any lunch.'
'Maybe something has happened to them,' said my wife. 'I can't eat if
they're not here.'
We waited.
'I'm sure nothing has happened to them,' I said at last. 'They're young
and silly and don't notice the time. Put the food on the table.'
'Look!' said Jack, before I could speak. He held out two very small
birds. 'We shot them with our bows and arrows!'
'I'm very pleased about that. But I'm angry because you're late. Your
mother's been worried about you. Sit down and eat your lunch.'
We only had meat and a little bread for lunch. The bread was very
hard. The meat was an animal that I shot the day before.
'I left some things at the tent,' said my wife. 'If we get them, I can give
you better meals.'
***
We left and walked towards the beach. The dogs went in front; this
time, the little monkey was riding on Turk's back. Then came Fritz, Ernest
and Jack with their bows and arrows. My wife and Franz and I came last.
There was still a lot of wood on the beach, and I noticed two long pieces,
just the same shape. Their ends were turned up.
'Now where,' I thought, 'have I seen pieces of wood shaped like that?
Ah! I remember! In Switzerland, of course!'
We reached the tent and found everything in the same place as before.
Everyone looked for the things that they wanted. Fritz got some gunpowder,
while I found the butter. My wife pointed to a bag that I remembered
putting into our boat.
'Ah!' she said. 'That's what I wanted for our lunch. Potatoes!'
'There are only enough for one meal,' I said. 'But if we plant them,
we'll have plenty next year - enough for all our meals.' Jack was listening to
this. 'We can eat these potatoes and then we can find wild potatoes,' he said.
'You found sugar and coconuts.'
'No, Jack. Wild potatoes grow on the top of high mountains. And
they're very small and not very good to eat. These potatoes are different
from wild ones. We must make a garden and grow potatoes in it.'
Next, Fritz and I went to get salt. The sea water dried on the rocks and
left salt behind. We were able to get enough to give our food some taste.
But we were stupid not to take more than that!
CHAPTER NINE
The Sledge
Later in bed, I thought, 'That barrel of butter was very heavy. We must
find a way to carry heavy things.' I thought about our animals, tied up at the
foot of the tree at night. They weren't safe. We must make huts for them.
We needed wood for this, but more than we used for the floor of our house.
We also needed bamboo.
So early in the morning, Ernest and I climbed quietly down the ladder.
I took some tools, nails and a piece of light rope. We found the two pieces
of wood, and nailed them together with smaller pieces. Then we put a lot of
bamboo and wood across the top. I tied a rope on the front, and we pulled
the sledge back along the beach. It moved very easily across the sand.
***
Then we saw the monkey hiding behind a tree. He was eating an egg.
The monkey ran away to another tree, and Ernest ran after him. Soon Ernest
came back with four more eggs. My wife went and looked in the grass.
'One of the chickens is sitting on her eggs,' she said. 'Soon we'll have
some little ones. We must make a safe place for the chickens. Then we can
keep the monkey away from them.'
***
After lunch, Ernest and I went out again with the donkey. The donkey
pulled the sledge to the beach. We put more wood and bamboo on the
sledge, and then I looked at the sky.
'We must go home,' I said. 'There are clouds in the sky, and the wind
is getting stronger.'
Then I looked at the place where the ship was still on the rocks.
Another storm could carry the rest of it away. We must make one more
journey to the ship before it broke into pieces. Why was I so stupid on our
last journey? We brought back the animals, butter, salt meat, bedclothes,
gunpowder, some books. But we knew then that we were on the island for a
long time - a year, two years... perhaps for the rest of our lives. Why didn't I
think of other, more important things?
CHAPTER TEN
The next morning, Fritz and I got up very early. We went to look at
our boat. It was in a good state, but it didn't have a sail. That was now the
Tree House roof.
'I think,' said Fritz, 'that we can use long flat pieces of wood as
paddles.'
'Yes,' I said, 'but we must get another sail from the ship. The boat will
be very heavy with everything in it. There's still a strong wind. We'll run
back home and tell the others. We'll go now, and then we'll spend the night
on the ship.'
We went quickly and told them our plans. My wife said, 'We'll meet
you with the sledge when you come back. Be careful!'
***
'What's that?'
'Yes,' I said, 'but we can't eat fish and meat every day.'
'No,' he answered. 'We must have bread, and fruit, and green
vegetables.'
'Do you remember Mr Wilkins, on the ship? He was moving to a new
home. I'll see if I can find his tools. You find a fishing line.'
'Yes,' said Fritz. 'I remember watching one of the officers when he
was fishing over the side of the boat. I know which room was his. I'll look
there.'
I went below and found some gardening tools. I also found some
seeds. 'That's lucky!' I thought. 'Now we'll have lots of different vegetables
to eat.'
'What will pull it?' asked Fritz. 'I don't think the donkey can pull a
plough.'
'No,' I answered, 'no, you're right. But it isn't very big. We'll take it.
Perhaps we can use it.'
***
We slept on the ship that night. The next day was windier, and the sky
looked stormy. We put a good sail on our boat and started back towards the
land.
'Perhaps,' said Fritz, 'we can catch a fish on the way back to the land.'
He put a fishing line over the side and pulled it through the water.
Suddenly, we felt something on the line. It was very strong - it pulled the
boat back towards the open sea.
***
My wife and the boys were waiting for us. We quickly took our things
off the boat and put them on the sledge.
'No,' answered Fritz. 'No! Let's see if the fish is still with us.' He went
into the water. 'Yes, it's still here. It's dead.' So we carried the big fish on to
the beach and put it on the sledge.
'This will give us food for days,' I said, 'if it doesn't go bad. We must
put it in salt.'
'But now,' said Ernest, 'we haven't got a boat. What shall we do?'
'We'll take the barrels that we used for the boat,' I said. 'They'll be
very useful for food and other things. Ernest, you walk along the beach. I
think the sea threw one of the ship's boats out of the water there.'
I was right. There was a boat there. It was badly broken, but we were
able to mend it.
We had some of the fish for supper, and it tasted very nice. Then my
wife kept some for our meals the next day, and put the rest into a barrel with
salt.
***
After our meal, we sat round the fire. We talked about the things that
we had to do in the next few days.
'You must make a hut for the tools and other large things,' said my
wife. 'You can't carry those tools up and down into our house.'
'Yes,' I said, 'and we must also make some huts for the animals.'
'Oh?' I said. 'Let's see. I think we'll have more animals soon.' And I
was right!
'A big garden!' said Fritz. 'What have we got? Plants and seeds from
the ship - and potatoes. And perhaps we can find other plants on the island
that we can grow in our garden.'
'Yes,' I said, 'but we must build a wall round the garden. We don't
want the animals to eat the plants. We'll use bamboo.'
'Oh, that's a lot of work!' said Ernest. Ernest was lazy and didn't like
work.
'There's one thing that you haven't told me,' said my wife. 'You've told
me what we'll be able to eat next year. But what are we going to eat now?'
'Ah,' I said. 'We haven't got any potatoes, but there are wild plants. I'm
sure that there are sweet potatoes on this island.'
***
Next morning, we all went out and looked for sweet potatoes. For
some time, we didn't find anything. Then Fritz found a plant and called me.
Back at the Tree House, my wife cooked the sweet potatoes. They
tasted like potatoes, but not as nice. Then she made some of the potatoes
into a sort of bread. It was quite hard, but good.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Garden
We all started to work. After a time, when we were quite tired, I said,
'Let's see what the animals left on the ground last night. That'll be very good
for the earth in the garden.'
We went to look.
It was true - the pig was nowhere near the Tree House.
'We can't do anything about that,' I said. 'Perhaps she'll come back
again.'
We went back and worked again in the garden. We were all very tired
when it was time for the evening meal. We had fish and sweet potatoes.
'Now,' I said, 'we must work in the garden again tomorrow, and plant
all the seeds from the ship. Then we'll put bamboo around our garden and
make huts for the animals.'
'We must make a big hut for the pig,' said Jack, 'if she has a lot of
little pigs.'
'Now, go to bed,' I said to the boys. 'Be ready to work hard tomorrow.
First, we'll get the bamboo.'
'How will we carry a lot of bamboo across the ground?' asked Jack.
'We can't use the sledge. Can the donkey pull it?'
'No,' I said. 'We won't go to the place where we found bamboo before.
We'll go to a different place. Then we'll be able to bring it here more easily.'
'Yes,' I said, 'we'll go up the river. We'll cut the pieces of bamboo and
pull them to the river. Then the river can carry them down to our Tree
House.'
We left the next morning to get bamboo for our garden and for animal
huts. My wife and the four boys came with me and the two dogs, Turk and
Flora. We also took the donkey. We needed it to pull the bamboo to the side
of the river. It was our first visit to this part of the island, so we took our
guns with us. The dogs were a mistake - but the guns weren't.
We went up the river and found a lot of bamboo. We cut it and tied it
together, and the donkey pulled it to the river. Then we had a meal and
rested.
Jack went for a walk. After a time, he came back and said, 'Father,
there's a big field over there, and there are ten or fifteen large horses in it.'
Then Turk and Flora began to jump up and down, making a lot of
noise. The buffaloes became angry, and they came towards us. We were in
great danger, but Fritz and I both used our guns. One of the buffaloes fell
dead, and the others turned and ran away. We were lucky to escape so
easily.
I said to Fritz and Ernest, 'Come and catch those two young buffaloes.
The dogs have pushed them into the trees. We must take them with us.'
We put ropes round their necks, and they came with us without any
trouble. We hurried away as fast as we could.
'Now,' I said, 'we'll leave the bamboo until tomorrow. But the young
buffaloes will be very useful! We'll give them milk from the goat.'
***
'You seem very pleased about the young buffaloes,' said Ernest.
'Yes, I am,' I answered, 'because now I can see an answer to two big
problems.'
'These,' I answered. 'When the goat doesn't give us any more milk, we
won't have any. But these two young buffaloes will grow up, and they'll
have babies. So we'll have more and more buffaloes and plenty of milk.
Buffalo milk is very good. We can make butter from it, and perhaps cheese
too.'
'No, not yet,' I answered, 'but next year. We mustn't think only of
today. We must think of future years.'
***
The next day, we went back and cut up the dead buffalo. We brought a
lot of the meat back and put it into barrels with salt. 'Now,' I thought, 'we'll
have food in the winter.' We also put the bamboo in the river, and the river
carried it down to a place near the Tree House. We pulled it to the Tree
House and started to put it around our garden.
***
Some days later, when the garden was finished, I said, 'Now we must
begin to make huts for the animals.'
'We need one for the buffaloes, one for the goats and another for the
sheep,' said Ernest. 'And perhaps we should make a house for the chickens.'
'But,' I said, 'the donkey and the pig need huts too.'
'Oh,' said Ernest, 'the pig's gone. And today the donkey's gone too.'
'Gone?' I said.
'Yes. I can't see it anywhere. And the pig went days ago.'
'Yes,' I said, 'but I hope they'll come back. We'll make huts for all of
them, and hope.'
***
'At last!' I said. 'We're all very glad to see you, Mrs Pig. And your
house is ready for you!'
So we pushed the pig and her six babies into their hut.
Then Franz called to me. 'Look!' he cried. 'Flora's had six babies too!'
***
The dogs heard it too. They looked ready for a fight. We all looked
round. We couldn't see anything, but the noise continued. It came nearer
and nearer, and our dogs became angrier and angrier. I tied them to a tree.
Then Fritz put down his gun and started to laugh. 'I can see it,' he
said. 'It's our donkey. He's come back!'
There he was. And then we saw that he wasn't alone. Our donkey was
bringing another animal with him, very similar to a donkey but smaller.
'That,' I said to Jack and Ernest, 'is probably a kind of wild donkey
Now don't make a sound. Fritz and I will try to catch her.'
Fritz moved towards our donkey, holding some salt in his hand. Our
donkey loved salt. He came to Fritz, and the wild donkey came a little
closer too. Then, when she was near enough, I put a rope over her head
from behind her. She fought against us, but at last we were able to tie her
up.
I said, 'Perhaps the wild donkey will have babies. It will be easier to
teach her if she does. And she'll be useful to us.' And that is what happened,
in the end.
The chickens were sitting on eggs, and soon we had forty little ones.
So now we had a lot of animals to feed. We had the donkey and the wild
donkey, two buffaloes, the goats, the pigs and the dogs, the sheep and the
monkey.
I said, 'We must work very hard and get food for all these animals.
The rainy season is coming.'
So we brought the tent from the beach and filled it with dry grass. We
got sweet potatoes and coconuts and put them in a dry place at the foot of
the tree.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Winter
There were dark clouds in the sky, and the sea was stormy. I looked
out to sea and thought, 'The Sea has finally broken up our ship. There will
be more wood on the beach. And this rough sea will come up to our boat on
the beach.'
'Boys,' I said, 'we must pull our boat high up on the beach. We don't
want the sea to carry it away. And we must turn it over, so it doesn't fill
with water.'
We went down to the beach and pulled the boat up high on the sand
and turned it over.
Then Ernest pointed and said, 'What's that thing there? That square
thing?'
I looked and saw a big box. It was nearly covered with sand. We
uncovered it and opened it, and it was full of a sailor's clothes. The clothes
were very wet and salty from the sea water.
'We can wash them in the river and dry them,' I said.
'They'll be too big for us,' said Jack. 'They're too big for Fritz, or
Ernest.'
'Yes,' I said, 'they'll be too big for you. But you'll be glad when your
other clothes have got wet in the rain.'
The sea was now coming up over the rocks. And there was no
sunshine to dry the salt.
'Now,' I said to my family,' we've got a good house and plenty of food,
so we're ready for the winter.'
The next few months were probably the unhappiest months that I
have ever known in all my life. We had four enemies - the rain, the wind,
the cold and the shorter days. The days were not much shorter, but we had
to spend a lot of time inside the house because of the bad weather.
The rain came down like a river from the sky. It rained nearly all day
and all night. There were only a few days when it stopped. Most of the land
was under water. The river was too big to cross, and our bridge was broken.
Luckily our garden was on higher ground, and our plants were beginning to
come through.
The wind was very strong. When we made our Tree House, I didn't
think about the wind. If a house is built on the ground, with good walls and
a low roof, the wind will pass over it. The house is safe. But when a house
is built up in a tree, the wind goes up into it.
The roof of our house was made of sailcloth. When it rained, there
were deep pools of water on the roof. The water ran over the sides, on to the
floor. Then the strong wind pushed the sailcloth up, and a river of rain came
down into the room!
The days were not as hot as before, and the nights were the same -
sometimes even cold. We sat all day in wet clothes and we couldn't dry
them. In the evenings, we didn't know how to keep warm. We put stones on
the floor of our tree room and lit a fire on them, but soon the room was full
of smoke and we were afraid of a fire. We couldn't get the smoke out of the
room. We couldn't make a hole in the roof because of the rain.
When the sun went down, darkness came suddenly. But even in the
daytime, the room was quite dark. We had no light. We burned small pieces
of wood, giving a little light. But that wasn't enough. So at night we sat
round in our wet clothes, very cold, in the darkness. There was nothing to
do except sleep.
I said, 'We must go down and live at the foot of the tree. We'll put a
sailcloth over this floor. Then there will be two roofs - the roof in the tree
and the roof on this floor. Then we'll be dry down there.'
We built two walls at the foot of the tree. The animals' huts made the
third wall, and the tree was the fourth wall. We made a hole in the floor of
the upstairs room for the smoke from our fire. Now the rain couldn't come
straight down on to the fire.
We were more comfortable in this lower room, but the smell of the
animals came in from the huts, and that was terrible.
***
After a time, we began to have problems with our food. The buffalo
meat went bad because there wasn't enough salt in the barrels. Oh, why
didn't I think about that before? We needed a lot of salt to keep our food
fresh through the bad months of the year.
We killed some of the older chickens and ate them. Then, when the
weather was better, the boys were able to go out fishing or shooting with
their bows and arrows. They brought in a little fish and meat. We had sweet
potatoes, but cooking was very difficult. When the weather was good, my
wife made enough sweet-potato bread for a few days. But it wasn't very
good.
We didn't have enough food for the animals. We killed four of the
young dogs, leaving only Turk and Flora and two of their babies. We had to
find food for the goats, the sheep and the buffaloes. We couldn't give them
enough food in their huts, so we moved them out into the forest. We put
coconut shells around their necks, so we could hear them. Then we put a
little food in their huts each night, so they wanted to come back home.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
We were very pleased when the storms ended. After those long weeks
of rain, the sun shone again. We came out from our dark, smelly room and
looked up at the bright sun. Around us the grass was green, and flowers
were coming through. In our garden, the plants were coming up very well -
but the birds saw them too! So Jack guarded them, with Flora's help, and
kept the birds away. We also put fishing lines across the plants to protect
them from those little thieves.
'I can't live through another winter like that,' said my wife. 'It will kill
me. I'm sure that the first men, thousands of years ago, didn't live in trees
like monkeys. They lived in caves, and we must find one too.'
I knew that she was right. I went out and walked along the coast and
looked at the hills near the sea. Some came straight down to the beach.
Those were possible places for caves. I walked a long way, but I couldn't
see any big ones. I needed a large cave for my family.
I went back and told my wife and the boys. The caves weren't large
enough for us.
'So,' said Fritz, 'if the caves aren't big enough, we must make one
bigger.'
'You can try,' I said, 'but the rock's very hard. I don't know if it's
possible. I'll take you to the best cave that I've found, above the beach. It
was probably made by the sea, but the sea's gone down and left it in the side
of the hill. Bring the tools and we'll try.'
So we went to the cave. We worked for a week, but we only made the
cave six feet deeper. The rock was very hard. I thought about using
gunpowder, but gunpowder was too important for us. I didn't know what to
do.
'I think,' said Fritz, 'that the rock is getting softer. This piece here
seems softer.'
Jack was the smallest, so he was working at the lowest part of the
rock. One morning, he cried out, 'I've done it! I've done it! I've made a hole
right through the rock!'
Fritz went to look. He soon came back, saying, 'It's true, Father. Jack's
right. I can't understand it. Jack has made a hole in the rock and there's
nothing behind it.'
I was very surprised. I took a long piece of bamboo and put it through
the hole.
'Let's make the hole bigger,' said Fritz. 'Then one of us can go
through.'
I said, 'That's dangerous. If the hole's very deep, you'll fall. We must
be very careful. Let's make the hole a little bigger. Then I can put my head
in and look.'
So we made the hole bigger and I put my head in. Suddenly, I felt
very ill. I moved away.
'You mustn't go into the cave, boys - if it's a cave,' I said. 'The air's
really bad and dangerous. I'm sure you can die in there. First, we must drive
out the bad air.'
So we put burning grass and sticks into the hole, but the fire went out
immediately.
'Perhaps,' said Ernest, 'if we light a fire just in front of the hole, the
hot air will pull the cold air out of the cave.'
'Yes, that's possible,' I said. 'But I think that will be slow - and,
perhaps, dangerous. I think this time we should use some of our
gunpowder.'
So I took some coconut shells, tied some rope round them and filled
them with gunpowder. Then I lit one and threw it quickly into the cave.
There was a very loud noise, and the bad air came out with the smoke. I did
the same with two more coconut shells and then we tried to light a fire
again.
This time the fire burned. It didn't burn very well, but the smoke and
hot air came out through the hole and soon the fire was burning better. At
last, it began to burn brightly - as brightly inside the cave as in the open air.
'Run to the Tree House,' I said to Ernest. 'Bring all the small pieces of
wood that we've got. We can use them as lights when we go into the cave.'
While he was gone, we made the mouth of the cave bigger. Then we
could see the walls that were nearest the doorway. Jack looked in and said,
'The walls are covered with beautiful stones in lots of different colours. It's
wonderful!'
I looked into the cave. Jack was right. The walls were covered with
things that looked like stones.
'Look, boys,' I cried. 'We'll never have to look for salt again! Next
winter we'll have plenty of salt, and we'll have meat through all the bad
months.'
We looked round the cave. It was very big. I saw that we could make
a room at one end for all our things, with a bedroom next to it. We could
have another big room as a kitchen and sitting room.
'But,' I said, 'there's one thing that we must make now. I don't think
this end of the cave is very far from the outside air. I'll hit the rock inside
the cave. I want you, Fritz, to go outside and listen. Tell me where you hear
me most clearly. Put a stick there to show the place.'
So Fritz went out and I started to knock on the inside of the cave wall
in different places. After a time, he came back and said, 'I've found the best
place. I can hear you quite well.'
'Ah!' I said. 'Then we'll make a hole through there from the outside.
We need fresh air in the cave. It'll be hard work, but we must do it.'
***
It was hard work, but after two days Fritz was able to put bamboo
through the hole. The other end of it came into the cave. Then we made the
hole bigger from inside the cave.
'Now,' I said, 'we can make a fireplace, with a hole for the smoke.'
'No,' I said, 'don't worry. When the hole gets warm, the air will go up
it. It'll be all right. Keep the fire going for two days, and it'll work very
well.'
And that was what happened. On the second evening, the air began to
go up the hole and it took all the smoke out of the cave.
My wife was very pleased. She said, 'Now I can cook and dry your
clothes, and we can sit round a nice bright fire on winter evenings. We'll be
very happy.'
'Yes,' I said, 'but we'll have to do a lot more work. Next winter we'll
have more animals. We must build a farm between the Tree House and the
cave. Then the animals can live there in the summer and winter.'
'Yes,' I said. 'We can use the plough to make fields, and we must grow
lots of vegetables. To work! To work!'
***
So we all had a very busy summer. We put lots of salt meat, dried fish
and coconuts in the cave. When the end of the year came, we added
potatoes and sweet potatoes. Then we made a hut at the farm, and put dried
grass and other food in it for the animals. We built a small hut there for
someone to live in. They could look after the farm at night and drive away
wild animals.
'The boys' clothes are in a terrible state, and the clothes from the
sailor's box aren't very useful. When we found them, they were full of sea
water. Now they're falling to pieces. They'll be all right for another year, but
not longer. I must make cloth.'
'How can you make cloth?' said Fritz. 'From what? We've only got
two sheep.'
I won't tell you about all our problems with those plants. But in the
end, my wife was able to make cloth. It wasn't very good and it wasn't very
white, but she was happy. But until then the boys wore animal skins. They
caught the animals, and we now had plenty of salt. So we prepared the
skins, and my wife was able to make clothes out of them.
So the year passed - our second year on the island. The boys were
getting big and strong. Fritz was now nearly sixteen, and Ernest was
fourteen. I thought about the future.
One evening, I said to them, 'You two are the oldest. Soon I'll have
two fine, strong men to help me in our work on the island. As I become
older, you'll be able to do the harder work. Jack is a quick learner and he
can help your mother. Little Franz isn't very helpful yet, but he's a good
little boy and doesn't give us much trouble. Yes, we're very lucky.'
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Canoe
The farm became bigger and bigger. The buffaloes pulled the plough
and they gave us all our milk. We were able to make butter from it too.
We got more eggs from our chickens than we could eat in the spring
and the summer. In the winter, we had just enough eggs for our needs. The
wild donkey had a baby. It was very pretty and it was easier to teach than its
mother.
***
I went down there. Everything in the farm buildings was broken, and
the plants from the fields were everywhere. Monkeys laughed at us from the
trees.
Turk and Flora's babies were now old enough for us to teach them.
We made a rule that one of us - Fritz, Ernest or I - always slept down at the
farm with the dogs. They were quick to learn about the monkeys. We
showed them that they must always run after a monkey. When they did, the
monkeys ran away. Soon the monkeys stopped coming to the farm.
***
As I watched my boys grow up, I was very pleased with them. Fritz
was very strong and tall. Ernest wasn't as big, and he was quieter. But he
wasn't as lazy as before. He wrote down the names of all the plants on the
island and drew pictures of them. He made some paper out of plants, like
the Egyptians many thousands of years ago. Franz was more sensible than
Jack. He always did what he promised to do. But Jack was a good son too,
and he did a lot of work on the farm. Franz liked helping his mother, while
Jack spent more time with me.
***
One day, Fritz said to me, 'I'd like to go away alone. I want to visit the
parts of the island that we haven't seen. The ship's boat is too heavy for one
person. I want to make a canoe.'
'I think we can make a canoe,' I said. 'I've seen canoes made from the
bark of tall trees. I'll try to help you.'
We found a big tree and I cut a ring round the bark, at the bottom.
Then I tied a rope ladder to one of the branches. I told Fritz to cut round the
tree about twenty feet up from the ring. Then I made a cut from top to
bottom between the two circles. We took the bark off very carefully, and it
fell away in one piece. We tied pieces of bamboo to our canoe to hold it in
the right shape. Then we nailed together the sides at each end of the boat. A
sweet juice from one of the trees dried quickly and went hard. We used this
to fill the holes.
'I think,' said Fritz, 'that the water will come in over the front of the
canoe, and perhaps over the back. Perhaps we should cover those places.
We can leave a place in the middle where I can sit.'
'Yes,' I said, 'you're right. We must put a light cover over it.'
We also found a long flat piece of wood. Fritz could use that as a
paddle, to move the boat along.
When the canoe was ready, we waited for a few days. Then it was dry,
and we tried it in the water. At first, Fritz had problems in the canoe. It
turned over and he often fell out. But he practised, and after a few days he
was able to travel safely, even in rough sea.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jenny
One day, Fritz went away in his little canoe. He stayed away all day.
In the evening, my wife became very worried.
We looked. It was Fritz in his canoe. We all ran down to the water to
meet him.
'Oh, Fritz,' cried his mother, 'I thought you were dead.'
'I've always wanted to know more about the west of the island, so I
decided to look there. I took my gun and some gunpowder, a fishing line
and my knife. I came to the place where we found shellfish for the first
time. I went for a swim there, and I found a lot more. I brought some up on
to the beach and opened them. Inside one of them I found this.' He held out
his hand. In it there was a large pearl. 'I opened some more and I found a lot
of pearls. Look!'
'If you make holes through them, Mother can wear them around her
neck,' said Jack.
'No, no,' said my wife, 'I don't want them. Who wants to wear pearls
on this island?'
'Perhaps one day,' I said, 'a ship will come and take you home. You
can sell these for a lot of money. We'll put them in a safe place.'
'I haven't told you the most important thing,' said Fritz. 'I went on
farther to the west. In the evening, I sat on the beach and had a meal. As I
was sitting there, a big bird flew over me. It was flying very slowly, so I
shot it. Then I saw why it was flying so slowly. It was hurt. And this was
tied around its leg.'
'Yes,' said Fritz, 'but where is the smoking island? I went up the hill
behind me and I looked out to sea. There, far out at sea, there was a little
smoke going into the sky. It came from a small island.
'I went out to the island and climbed up to the top. In a little wood, I
saw a small hut made of branches. In front of the hut there was a fire, and
fish was cooking in a big shell. I hid behind a tree and waited. Then
someone came out of the hut. She was wearing the coat of a ship's officer.
She went to the fire. I came out of the trees and she turned round.'
'Yes. It was a young woman! I told her not to be afraid. I told her
about us. She can live with us, can't she? We will bring her here, won't we?'
'She got away in a boat with a ship's officer and some sailors. The
officer gave her his coat. He told her to watch for another ship or for land.
Then another storm came. A big wave covered the boat... She doesn't know
what happened after that. When she opened her eyes, she was on that little
island.'
'I asked her that. She's got shellfish, and there are coconuts on the
trees. She made a fishing line from her hair and she catches small fish. She
uses stones to make a fire. She's made a little hut for birds from bamboo,
but she can only catch small ones. When the big bird came down on the
island, it hurt its leg. So she was able to tie that piece of cloth round it, with
her call for help.'
'Yes,' said Fritz. 'I sat with her and listened to her story. Then I told
her to stay on the island. I promised to return as quickly as possible. I
couldn't come all the way home that day. I slept on the beach and started
again this morning. Can we go to Jenny today?'
***
Jenny was waving from the beach as we came near. We stepped out of
the boat onto the beach, and she threw her arms round my neck and cried.
We sailed back home along the coast. Mother and the three boys were
waiting on the beach to meet Jenny.
My wife said, 'I'll have to dress you like one of my sons, because
these are our only clothes.'
Jenny had a bath and dressed in sailors' clothes. Then she joined us
for a large lunch, and Jack put flowers in her hair.
***
Perhaps my boys thought that they could teach Jenny a lot of things.
But she could shoot better than they could.
She was very good at catching fish. She was able to tell Ernest the
real names of many of his plants.
Jenny thought about her father all the time. 'I'm sure that ships are
looking for me,' she said.
Fritz said, 'If a ship comes, we'll hear a gun. We'll answer with our
guns. Then they'll know that we're here.'
'A ship will come one day and take me back to Father,' Jenny said.
'I'm very happy with you, but he's probably very sad. He doesn't know if I
am alive or dead.'
***
The summer ended and the winter passed. Early one morning, Fritz
went out in his canoe. He was looking for a nice big fish for our lunch.
Then, suddenly, we saw him turn round and come back.
We waited, then used the gun again, and the answer came, louder and
nearer. Then we saw a boat coming towards the beach. We ran down to
meet it. An officer stepped out.
'I am Officer Littleton,' he said, 'of the Unicom. Is Miss Jenny
Montrose here? Some of the sailors from her ship, the Dorcas, told me to
try these islands, because the ship was lost near here.'
'But...' he said.
The End
The Unicorns boat is waiting to take this story of our life here to
England. There, perhaps, it will become a book. Other people will learn
about our beautiful island, and perhaps some will want to join us in this
quiet, simple, happy life.
Ernest said, 'I want to stay and learn more about the plants, but the
officer must send me books.'
He took Jenny's hand in his. 'Yes,' he said, 'we want to go now, but
we'll come back.'
Officer Littleton left us some things, and we gave him our pearls.
'I'll send you more from Europe,' he promised. 'I'll sell the pearls for
you to pay for them and for Fritz's school,'