The Swiss Family Robinson | Page 8

I with
them, and found a large POR-CU-PINE, in the grass. It made a loud
noise, and shot out its quills at the dogs, and made them bleed. At this
Jack shot at the beast, which fell dead on the spot. My wife's first
thought was to dress the wounds made by the quills, which had stuck in
the nose of one of the dogs, while the boys made haste to pluck some of
the quills from the skin of their strange prize.
At last our march came to an end, and I saw for the first time the great
trees that my wife had told me of. They were of vast size, and were, I
thought, fig trees. "If we can but fix our tent up there," I said, "we shall
have no cause to dread, for no wild beasts can reach us." We sent Frank
off to find sticks, with which to make a fire, and my wife made some
soup of the flesh of the beast we had slain, though we did not like it so
well as we did the ham and cheese we brought with us.

CHAPTER VI.
THE meal at an end, my first thought was to make some steps by
means of which we could reach the first strong branch of the tree.
Ernest and I went in search of some thick canes that grew in the sands
hard by. These we cut down, bound them to four long poles, and thus
made a pair of steps that would, we thought, reach far up the trunk.
On our way back from the sands, one of the dogs made a dart at a
clump of reeds, and a troop of large birds rose on the wing with a loud
noise. Fritz let fly at them, and brought down two at a shot. One of
them fell quite dead, but its mate, though hurt in the wing, made use of
its long legs so well that it would have got off if Bill had not held it.
The joy of Fritz, to have caught such a strange bird, was so great that he
would have us at once bind it by the neck and take it back with us.
"Look," said Ernest, "what fine plumes he has, and you see he has web
feet like a goose, and has long legs like a stork: thus he can run on land
as fast as he can swim."
"Yes," said I, "and he can fly with more speed through the air, for these
birds have great strength in their wings. In fact, few birds have such
means of flight as the FLA-MIN-GO."
My wife thought the great bird might need more food than we could
spare. I told her that it would feed on small fish and worms, and not rob
our geese of their grain. I then tied him to a stake near the stream; and
in a few days we were glad to find that he knew us, and would come at
a call, like a tame bird.
While I sat on the grass with my sons, late in the day, I thought I would
try to make a bow and thus save our shot. This I did with a long cane
and a piece of string, and then made a dart with a sharp point, which I
shot off and found it would go straight. The branch of the tree on which
we were to fix our hut was so high that our steps would not near reach
it. I tied some strong thread to the dart, and shot it over the branch; then
tied a piece of rope to the end of the thread, and drew that up, and at

last made a long row of cane steps, with a rope at each side, which we
drew up to the first strong branch. The boys were now all in haste to
climb the tree, but I chose that Jack, who was light of build and sure of
foot, should go up first and try the strength of our work. Fritz went up
next with some nails, and made the ropes fast to the tree, while I drove
stakes in the ground to keep them firm at the foot. It was now time for
me to mount, and up I went with an axe to lop off the twigs and smooth
the bough that was to form the ground of our new house. I sent the boys
down out of my way, and kept hard at work till it was late, for the sky
was clear, and the moon lent me her beams of light to see by.
When I came down my wife spread a good meal on the ground, which
we ate as best