CHAPTER VIII.
IT took the whole of the next day to make a sledge, to which we tiedthe ass, and drove to Tent House. On our sledge we put such of the caskswhich held food, and took them back to The Nest. Fritz and I went oncemore to the wreck, and this time we brought off chests of clothes, pigsof lead, cart wheels, sacks of maize, oats, peas, and wheat. With astrong bar we broke down some of the doors, and took such parts of theship as we thought would aid us to build our house, which as yet was farless safe than I could wish. These we bound with cords, and made themfloat back at the stern of the raft.
When we got to the shore my wife and the three boys were there to greetus. My first care was to send for the sledge, and with this we took mostof our new wealth up to The Nest.
The next day I told my sons that they must now learn to run, to leap, toclimb, and to throw stones straight at a mark, as all these things wouldbe of great use to them in their new mode of life.
I next taught them to use the LAS-SO, by means of which men catch thewild horse on the vast plains of the New World. I tied two stones to theends of a cord some yards in length, and flung off one of them at thetrunk of a young tree; the cord went round and round it in a coil andbound it so tight that I could have drawn it to me had it not been fastin the ground. This trick the boys were not slow to learn; and Fritz,in a short time, could take an aim as well with a stone as he could withhis gun.
As yet we had not seen much of the isle; for it took most of our timeto build the house. But one day we made up our minds that we would allstart on a tour. We rose at dawn, put the ass in the sledge, took whatfood we thought we should need, and set out from The Nest just as thesun rose.
When we came to the wood where Fritz found the ape, he told them by whatmeans we got the nuts, but now there were no apes there to throw themdown.
"Oh, if one would but fall from the trees," he said.
The words had but just left his lips when a large nut fell at his feet.He made a start back, and two more came down near the same spot.
As the nuts were far from ripe, I was at a loss to know how they couldfall off the tree, for I could not see an ape nor a bird near.
I went close up to the tree, and saw a large land crab on its way downthe trunk. Jack struck a blow at him with a stick, but did not hit thebeast. He then took off his coat and threw it on the crab's head, whileI made an end of him with an axe. I told them that these crabs climbthe trees and break off the nuts, as we had seen, and then come down tofeast on them at their ease.
"But how do they crack the nuts?" said Jack.
"They make a hole through the shell at the thin end, and then suck themdry."
The dead crab was put in the sledge, and we went on through the wood.When we came to the Gourd Wood, we sat down to make some more bowls andflasks to take back with us. Ernest had gone to try what new thing hecould find, but he had not been from us long, when we heard him call out,
"A wild boar! A great wild boar! Come here, pray!"
We took up our guns, and went at once with the dogs to the spot. We soonheard Turk give a loud bark, and just then we heard Ernest laugh, andsaw the two dogs come through a clump of brush wood, with our old sowfast by the ears. She did not seem to like the way in which they hadput an end to her feast of fruit, so she ran back as soon as we told thedogs to let go their hold of her ears.
"But with all our sport," said Fritz, "we have a poor show of game.Let us leave the young ones, and set off to see what we can meet with."Ernest sat down with Frank, and we left them and my wife at the gourdtree, while Fritz and Jack set off with me to a high rock which we sawon the right.
"Fritz, look here," said Jack, as he made his way to the rock.
"What have you found now?" said Fritz.
"I don't know what it is, but it's a fine prize."
When I went up I saw at once that it was a large I-GUA-NA, the flesh andeggs of which are both good for food. I had heard that these and suchlike beasts will stand still if you play an air on a pipe. So I creptnear, and made a low sound with my lips, while I held in my right handa stout stick, to which I had tied a cord with a noose, and in my lefthand a slight wand. I saw it first move its tail, and then draw its headfrom side to side, as if to look where the sound came from. I then threwthe noose round its neck, drew it tight, got on its back with a leap andthrust the wand up its nose, which is the sole part of the beast wherethere are no hard scales. It bled at once, and was soon dead, nor did itseem to feel any pain. Our prize, which was near five feet long was noslight weight to lift. I got it at last on my back, and thus we wentback to the gourd tree, where we found the rest quite safe.
It took us a long time to reach The Nest that night. My wife did herbest to dress some of the flesh of the land crab, but it was tough, anddid not taste so nice as the soup made from the beast that we had caughtby the nose.
The Swiss Family Robinson, Told in Words of One Syllable Page 7
