The Coral Island | Page 7

Having resumed our

garments, we now searched all our pockets with the utmost care, and
laid their contents out on a flat stone before us; and, now that our minds
were fully alive to our condition, it was with no little anxiety that we
turned our several pockets inside out, in order that nothing might
escape us. When all was collected together we found that our worldly
goods consisted of the following articles:-
First, A small penknife with a single blade broken off about the middle
and very rusty, besides having two or three notches on its edge.
(Peterkin said of this, with his usual pleasantry, that it would do for a
saw as well as a knife, which was a great advantage.) Second, An old
German-silver pencil-case without any lead in it. Third, A piece of
whip-cord about six yards long. Fourth, A sailmaker's needle of a small
size. Fifth, A ship's telescope, which I happened to have in my hand at
the time the ship struck, and which I had clung to firmly all the time I
was in the water. Indeed it was with difficulty that Jack got it out of my
grasp when I was lying insensible on the shore. I cannot understand
why I kept such a firm hold of this telescope. They say that a drowning
man will clutch at a straw. Perhaps it may have been some such feeling
in me, for I did not know that it was in my hand at the time we were
wrecked. However, we felt some pleasure in having it with us now,
although we did not see that it could be of much use to us, as the glass
at the small end was broken to pieces. Our sixth article was a brass ring
which Jack always wore on his little finger. I never understood why he
wore it, for Jack was not vain of his appearance, and did not seem to
care for ornaments of any kind. Peterkin said "it was in memory of the
girl he left behind him!" But as he never spoke of this girl to either of
us, I am inclined to think that Peterkin was either jesting or mistaken.
In addition to these articles we had a little bit of tinder, and the clothes
on our backs. These last were as follows:-
Each of us had on a pair of stout canvass trousers, and a pair of sailors'
thick shoes. Jack wore a red flannel shirt, a blue jacket, and a red
Kilmarnock bonnet or night-cap, besides a pair of worsted socks, and a
cotton pocket-handkerchief, with sixteen portraits of Lord Nelson
printed on it, and a union Jack in the middle. Peterkin had on a striped
flannel shirt, - which he wore outside his trousers, and belted round his

waist, after the manner of a tunic, - and a round black straw hat. He had
no jacket, having thrown it off just before we were cast into the sea; but
this was not of much consequence, as the climate of the island proved
to be extremely mild; so much so, indeed, that Jack and I often
preferred to go about without our jackets. Peterkin had also a pair of
white cotton socks, and a blue handkerchief with white spots all over it.
My own costume consisted of a blue flannel shirt, a blue jacket, a black
cap, and a pair of worsted socks, besides the shoes and canvass trousers
already mentioned. This was all we had, and besides these things we
had nothing else; but, when we thought of the danger from which we
had escaped, and how much worse off we might have been had the ship
struck on the reef during the night, we felt very thankful that we were
possessed of so much, although, I must confess, we sometimes wished
that we had had a little more.
While we were examining these things, and talking about them, Jack
suddenly started and exclaimed -
"The oar! we have forgotten the oar."
"What good will that do us?" said Peterkin; "there's wood enough on
the island to make a thousand oars."
"Ay, lad," replied Jack, "but there's a bit of hoop iron at the end of it,
and that may be of much use to us."
"Very true," said I, "let us go fetch it;" and with that we all three rose
and hastened down to the beach. I still felt a little weak from loss of
blood, so that my companions soon began to leave me behind; but Jack
perceived this, and, with his usual considerate good nature, turned back
to help me. This was now the first time that I had looked well about me
since landing, as the spot where I had been laid was covered with