The Coral Island | Page 9

to us than a hundred knives, and the edge is
quite new and sharp."
"I'll answer for the toughness of the handle at any rate," cried Peterkin;
"my arms are nearly pulled out of the sockets. But see here, our luck is
great. There is iron on the blade." He pointed to a piece of hoop iron, as
he spoke, which had been nailed round the blade of the oar to prevent it
from splitting.
This also was a fortunate discovery. Jack went down on his knees, and
with the edge of the axe began carefully to force out the nails. But as

they were firmly fixed in, and the operation blunted our axe, we carried
the oar up with us to the place where we had left the rest of our things,
intending to burn the wood away from the iron at a more convenient
time.
"Now, lads," said Jack, after we had laid it on the stone which
contained our little all, "I propose that we should go to the tail of the
island, where the ship struck, which is only a quarter of a mile off, and
see if anything else has been thrown ashore. I don't expect anything, but
it is well to see. When we get back here it will be time to have our
supper and prepare our beds."
"Agreed!" cried Peterkin and I together, as, indeed, we would have
agreed to any proposal that Jack made; for, besides his being older and
much stronger and taller than either of us, he was a very clever fellow,
and I think would have induced people much older than himself to
choose him for their leader, especially if they required to be led on a
bold enterprise.
Now, as we hastened along the white beach, which shone so brightly in
the rays of the setting sun that our eyes were quite dazzled by its glare,
it suddenly came into Peterkin's head that we had nothing to eat except
the wild berries which grew in profusion at our feet.
"What shall we do, Jack?" said he, with a rueful look; "perhaps they
may be poisonous!"
"No fear," replied Jack, confidently; "I have observed that a few of
them are not unlike some of the berries that grow wild on our own
native hills. Besides, I saw one or two strange birds eating them just a
few minutes ago, and what won't kill the birds won't kill us. But look
up there, Peterkin," continued Jack, pointing to the branched head of a
cocoa-nut palm. "There are nuts for us in all stages."
"So there are!" cried Peterkin, who being of a very unobservant nature
had been too much taken up with other things to notice anything so
high above his head as the fruit of a palm tree. But, whatever faults my
young comrade had, he could not be blamed for want of activity or

animal spirits. Indeed, the nuts had scarcely been pointed out to him
when he bounded up the tall stem of the tree like a squirrel, and, in a
few minutes, returned with three nuts, each as large as a man's fist.
"You had better keep them till we return," raid Jack. "Let us finish our
work before eating."
"So be it, captain, go ahead," cried Peterkin, thrusting the nuts into his
trousers pocket. "In fact I don't want to eat just now, but I would give a
good deal for a drink. Oh that I could find a spring! but I don't see the
smallest sign of one hereabouts. I say, Jack, how does it happen that
you seem to be up to everything? You have told us the names of
half-a-dozen trees already, and yet you say that you were never in the
South Seas before."
"I'm not up to EVERYTHING, Peterkin, as you'll find out ere long,"
replied Jack, with a smile; "but I have been a great reader of books of
travel and adventure all my life, and that has put me up to a good many
things that you are, perhaps, not acquainted with."
"Oh, Jack, that's all humbug. If you begin to lay everything to the credit
of books, I'll quite lose my opinion of you," cried Peterkin, with a look
of contempt. "I've seen a lot o' fellows that were ALWAYS poring over
books, and when they came to try to DO anything, they were no better
than baboons!"
"You are quite right," retorted Jack; "and I have seen a lot of fellows
who never looked into books at all, who knew nothing about anything
except the things they had actually seen, and very little they knew even
about these. Indeed, some were so ignorant that they did not know that
cocoa-nuts grew on cocoa-nut trees!"
I could not