The Swiss family Robinson
and overjoyed my children. Their mother was not less astonished than
they were to find that they had been on the island two years.
On the morrow we rose and dressed as decently as our scanty means
afforded, and proceeded to breakfast. After our daily prayer I
announced to my family that the amusements of the day would conclude
with the exercises which always terminated our holidays.
“You have practised for some time,” said I, “in wrestling, running,
slinging, and horsemanship; the time has come when you shall receive
the reward for your labours. You shall this day contend, before your
mother and me, and the crown shall be given to the victor. Come,
champions,” I added, elevating my voice, “the barrier is open, enter
the lists; and you, trumpets, sound the horn of combat.” As I said
these last words, I turned to the little inlet where our geese and
ducks were feeding, and the whole troop, frightened by my gestures,
and the tone of my voice, commenced a most deafening clamour, and
furnished my sons with a good joke to excite their risible faculties.
I then organized the different combats which were to take place.
First came firing at a mark; the materials for this were soon
arranged by fixing in the ground a rudely-shaped piece of wood,
with two bits of leather at each side of the top, which we called a
kangaroo. Jack did wonders, either by chance or skill: he shot away
one of the ears of our pretended kangaroo! Fritz just grazed the
head, and Ernest lodged his ball in the middle of the body. The three
shots were all worthy of praise. Another proof of skill was then
made; it consisted in firing at a ball of cork which I threw up in
the air. Ernest had the advantage here: he cut the ball to pieces.
Fritz also shot well, but Jack could not hit it. We then tried
the same thing with pistols, shortening the distance, and again I
complimented my boys upon the progress they had made since last year.
Slinging succeeded to the pistol exercise. Fritz carried off
the prize. After that came archery; and here all--even little
Francis--distinguished themselves. Next came the races; and I gave
them for a course the distance between Family Bridge and Falcon’s
Nest.
“The one that arrives first,” said I to the runners, who gathered
about me, “will bring me, as proof of his victory, my knife, which
I left on the table, under the tree.” I then gave the signal, by
clapping my hands three times. My three sons set out, Jack and
Fritz with all the impetuosity that marked their character; on the
contrary, Ernest, who never did anything without reflecting, set off
slowly at first, but gradually augmented his pace. I perceived that
he had his elbows pressed firmly against his body, and I augured well
from this little mark of prudence.
The runners were absent about three-quarters of an hour. Jack
returned first; but he was mounted on his buffalo, and the onagra and
the ass followed him.
“How now,” said I, “is this what you call racing? It was your legs,
and not those of the buffalo, that I wished to exercise.”
“Bah!” cried he, jumping from the back of his courser; “I knew I
would never get there, so I left the course; and, as the trial of
horsemanship comes next, I thought that, as I was near Falcon’s Nest,
I would bring our coursers back with me.”
Fritz came next, all out of breath and covered with sweat; but he had
not the knife, and it was Ernest who brought it me.
“How came you to have the knife,” said I, “when Fritz got here before
you?”
“The thing is simple,” answered Ernest; “in going, he could not long
keep up the pace he started with, and soon stopped to breathe, while
I ran on and got the knife; but in coming back, Fritz had learned a
lesson; he pressed his arms against his sides, and held his mouth
shut, as he had seen me do, and then the victory depended upon our
relative strength: Fritz is 16, while I am but 13, and of course he
arrived first.”
I praised the two boys for their skill, and declared Ernest conqueror.
But now Jack, mounted on his buffalo, demanded that the equestrian
exercises should commence, and he be allowed to repair the injury his
reputation had sustained.
“To the saddle, to the saddle, my lads,” he bellowed with all his
force, “and you shall then see who can best manage a courser; we
shall then know whether you can sit your horse as well as you can
exercise your legs.”
I hastened to comply with the request of the little braggart: Fritz
mounted his onagra, and Ernest took the ass; but although they tried
all their skill, Jack distanced them both. I was frightened myself
to see with what boldness the boy abandoned himself to the powerful
animal that bore him. To stop, charge, and turn was but a trifle to
him; a practised groom could not have managed a thoroughbred horse
with more ease and grace than he did his bull. Just as I had declared
the contest over, and was about to proclaim Jack victor, the little
Francis rode into the arena, mounted on his young bull “Broumm,” who
was not more than three or four months old; my wife had made him a
saddle of kangaroo-skin, with stirrups adjusted to his little legs,
and there he sat, a whip in his right hand, and the bridle of his
animal in the left.
“Gentlemen,” said the little cavalier, saluting us with a gracious
bend, “I have not contended with you thus far in any of the exercises
of the day; will you now permit Milo of Crotona to make a trial of
his horsemanship before you?”
The assembly loudly applauded this little harangue, and the cavalier
commenced to manœuvre his courser. The boy was more cool and calm
than those of his age are apt to be. But what I admired most was the
docility of the animal. My wife looked on with maternal pride to see
the success of her dear pupil, and Francis was unanimously proclaimed
an excellent horseman.
After the horsemanship, the swimming occupied some time; they also
climbed the trees; and, after we had finished our gymnastics, I
announced that the rewards would now be distributed, and that the
crowns would shade the brows of the victors.
Every one hastened to the grotto, which had been lighted up with
all the torches we possessed; my wife, as queen of the day, was
pompously installed in an elevated seat, decorated with flowers, and
I called up the laureates to receive the rewards, which their mother
distributed to each one as she impressed a tender kiss upon his
forehead.
Fritz--conqueror at shooting and swimming--received a superb English
rifle,[3] and a hunting-knife, which he had long wished for. Ernest
had for the reward of the race a splendid gold watch. Jack--the
cavalier--obtained a magnificent pair of steel spurs and a whip of
whalebone. Little Francis received a pair of stirrups and a box of
colours as a reward for the industry he had displayed in educating
his bull.
When this distribution was finished, I rose, and, turning to my
wife, presented her with a beautiful English work-box, in which was
contained all those little things that add so much to the comfort of
an industrious woman, such as pins, needles, scissors, etc.
“Receive,” said I, “my excellent companion, also a reward; for your
services and endurance during the year well deserve one, even though
the tender love of myself and children may be in itself a sufficient
reward.”
The day was finished as it had begun--with songs and expressions
of joy; we were all happy, all contented: we all enjoyed that pure
felicity which a life free from reproach had given us; and we all
thanked in our hearts the Lord who had been so merciful toward us.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] These articles were portion of the property brought
from the wreck.
CHAPTER XXXIV
Gourd Plantation--Monkey Root or Ginseng--Bird
Snares
We all remembered the bountiful provision we had derived from the
blackbirds and ortolans that had settled upon our giant tree at
Falcon’s Nest the preceding year. The time had now arrived for their
reappearance, and we resolved to leave the grotto, which had become
our established residence, and remove nearer to the spot, where I
intended to secure as many as possible of this delicious provision
for the coming winter.
The provision of India-rubber which we had collected on our last
excursion was exhausted; we had made waterproof boots of it, and,
before I set out, I wished to give them a new coat of it. I sent
Fritz and Jack to the wood of india-rubber trees, where I thought
they would find, ready drawn, a sufficient quantity of the gum, as
we had made large incisions in the trees, and placed calabashes
under them to receive it; and as experience had taught us that the
sun hardens it immediately, we had protected our calabashes from its
rays, by surrounding them with green branches.
Our two messengers were lost to our view when my wife suddenly
exclaimed, “Stupid woman that I am, I have forgotten to give the boys
a calabash in which they might put the gum, for they cannot bring it
home in the flat dishes we put there. I mean to go directly, and see
whether my gourds are ripe.”
I tranquillized my good wife by assuring her that they would not be
at a loss to find something; and then, returning to the last word she
had spoken, asked her what she meant by saying “my gourds.”
She then informed me that she possessed a superb plantation of
gourds, the seeds of which she had found among our European grains,
and which she had planted in her kitchen-garden. She led the way
there; and we found, among many other plants, a quantity of those
bottle-shaped gourds that the peasants in our country carry to the
field. Some were ripe, some just formed, and others in full bloom. We
selected the ripest, and those the form of which could be useful to
us, and we commenced to empty them out. We made bottles, and plates,
and saucers, using alternately the knife and the saw. But Ernest, my
aid and companion, had very little taste for such work, and he could
scarcely contain his joy when he heard me say we had done enough.
We now anxiously expected our young messengers back, for the sun had
already begun to decline. Ernest kept a good lookout on the side
his brothers were expected from, and he soon perceived them rapidly
approaching, the one mounted on the onagra, and the other on the
buffalo.
“Well,” said I, “have you made out well?”
“Oh, yes, very well,” said Fritz, in a singular tone, as they
leaped from their coursers, and showed us what they had brought,
which consisted of a root of anise that Jack had brought in his
buffalo-pouch; a root wrapped up in leaves, which they called “monkey
root”; two calabashes of india-rubber, and another half full of
turpentine; a sack full of wax berries, and a crane, which Fritz’s
eagle had killed. But while they were exhibiting their treasures,
they talked so fast and so rambling that I was obliged to make them
preserve a little order in their recital.
Jack then commenced telling us how he had obtained the anise and the
turpentine. Of these two things, one was, at least, superfluous; but
the other might be of some advantage, as I could use it instead of
oil in making my snares for the birds. I then asked them concerning
the “monkey root” they had brought; Fritz answered as follows:--
“I do not know of what importance this root may be to us; but I can
assure you that it far surpasses manioc, both in smell and savour. We
discovered it close by the farmhouse, where a company of monkeys were
regaling themselves on it. You would have laughed to see the manner
in which the ugly animals pulled out the roots. They made use of a
process which the labourers of Europe had no idea of--they pulled
them up by turning somersets.”
“By turning somersets!” cried we; “why, how wonderful!”