Swiss Family Robinson | Page 6

preserve the milk in this dreadful heat.'
`All these things are excellent indeed,' said I, `but my friend Jack here has presented me with a couple of huge hungry useless dogs, who will eat more than any of us.'
`Oh, papa! They will be of use! Why, they will help us to hunt when we get on shore!'
`No doubt they will, if ever we do get on shore, Jack; but I must say I don't know how it is to be done.'
`Can't we each get into a big tub, and float there?' returned he. `I have often sailed splendidly like that, round the pond at home.'
`My child, you have hit on a capital idea,' cried I. `That is certainly worth trying. Now, Ernest, let me have your tools, hammers, nails, saws, augers, and all; and then make haste to collect any tubs you can find!'
We very soon found four large casks, made of sound wood and strongly bound with iron hoops; they were floating with many other things in the water in the hold, but we managed to fish them out, and place them on the lower deck, which was at that time scarcely above water. They were exactly what I wanted, and I succeeded in sawing them across the middle. Hard work it was, and we were glad enough to stop and refresh ourselves with goat's milk, wine,* and biscuits.
* Even as late as this book was written, public water was likely to be polluted. Children as well as adults drank alcoholic beverages, often considerably diluted with water, because it had been observed that children who did not drink plain water were more likely to survive childhood.
My eight tubs now stood ranged in a row near the water's edge, and I looked at them with great satisfaction; to my surprise, my wife did not seem to share my pleasure!
`I shall never,' said she, `muster courage to get into one of these!'
`Do not be too sure of that, dear wife; when you see my contrivance completed, you will perhaps prefer it to this immovable wreck.'
I next procured a long thin plank on which my tubs could be fixed, and the two ends of this I bent upwards so as to form a keel. Other two planks were nailed along the sides of the tubs; they, also being flexible, were brought to a point at each end, and all firmly secured and nailed together, producing a kind of narrow boat, divided into eight compartments, which I had no doubt would float adequately in calm water. But when we thought all was ready for the launch, we found, to our dismay, that the grand contrivance was so heavy and clumsy that even our united efforts could not move it an inch.
`I must have a lever,' cried I. `Run and fetch the capstan bar!'
Fritz quickly brought one and, having formed rollers by cutting up a long spar, I raised the forepart of my boat with the bar, and my sons placed a roller under it.
`How is it, father,' inquired Ernest, `that with that thing you alone can do more than all of us together?'
I explained, as well as I could in a hurry, the principle of Archimedes' lever; from which he said he could move the world if he had a point from which his mechanism might operate, and promised to have a long talk on the subject of mechanics when we should be safe on land.
I now made fast a long rope to the stern of our boat, attaching the other end to a beam; then placing a second and third roller under it, we once more began to push, this time with success, and soon our gallant craft was safely launched: so swiftly indeed did she glide into the water that, if the rope had not been well secured, she would have passed beyond our reach. The boys wished to jump in directly; but, alas, she leaned so much on one side that they could not venture to do so.
Some heavy things being thrown in, however, the boat righted itself by degrees, and the boys were so delighted that they struggled which should first leap in to have the fun of sitting down in the tubs. But it was plain to me at once that something more was required to make her perfectly safe, so I contrived outriggers to preserve the balance, by nailing long poles across at the stem and stern, and fixing at the ends of each empty brandy cask.
Then, the boat appearing steady, I got in; and turning it towards the most open side of the wreck, I cut and cleared away obstructions, so as to leave a free passage for our departure, and the boys brought oars to be ready for the voyage. This important undertaking we were forced