Swiss Family Robinson

length, one made a rush at the opening and, the rest following, they were soon all on the other side of the frontier and inhabitants of New Switzerland.'
    `Capital,' I said, `capital, my boy! But I don't see what is to make them remain inhabitants of our domain, or to prevent them from returning through the Gap whenever they feel inclined.'
    `Stop, father,' he replied, `you interrupted me too soon; we thought of that possibility too, and provided against it. We stretched a long line right across the defile and strung on it feathers and rags and all sorts of other things, which danced and fluttered in the wind, and looked so strange that I am perfectly certain that the herd will never attempt to pass it; in fact, Levaillant , from whom I learnt the trick, says in his Voyage au Cap de Bonne Esperance that the Hottentots make use of the method for penning in the antelopes they have caught in the chase.'
    `Well done,' said I, `I am glad to see that you remember what you have read. The antelopes are welcome to New Switzerland, but, my boy,' I added, `I cannot say the same for the rabbits you have there; they increase so rapidly that if you establish a colony of the little wretches your next difficulty will be to get rid of them.'
    `True,' he replied, `but my idea was to place them upon Whale Island , where they would find abundant food, and at the same time in no way trouble us. May I not establish a warren there? It would be so useful. Do you know my eagle caught these pretty little fellows for me? I saw a number of them running about and so unhooded him, and in a few minutes he brought me three--one dead, with whose body I rewarded him, and these two here, unhurt.'
    `Now, father,' said Jack, interrupting him, `do listen to me and hear my story, or else Fritz will begin upon my adventures and tire you out with his rigmarole descriptions.'
    `Certainly, Jack,' I said, `I am quite ready to listen to you. First and foremostly , how did you bring down those beautiful little animals you have there?'
    `Oh, we galloped them down. The dogs sniffed about in the grass while Fritz was away after the rabbits, out popped these little fawns and away they went bounding and skipping, at the rate of thirty miles an hour, with Storm, Grumble and the dogs at their heels. In about a quarter of an hour we had left the dogs behind and were close upon our prey. Down went the little creatures in the grass, and, overcome with terror and fatigue, were at our mercy. So we shouted to Fritz, and--'
    `My dear boy,' said I, `according to your statement, Fritz must have been seven miles and a half off.'
    `Oh, well, father, perhaps we did not ride for quite a quarter of an hour, and, of course, I can't say exactly how fast we were going; and then, you see, the fawns did not run in a straight line; at any rate Fritz heard us, and he and Franz and I leashed the legs of the pretty creatures, and then we mounted again, and presently saw a wretch of a cuckoo, who led us ever so far out of our course by cuckooing and making faces at us and then hopping away. Franz declared it must be an enchanted princess, and so I thought I would rid it of its spell; but Fritz stopped me shooting it, and said it was a "Honey Indicator", and that it was leading us probably to a bees' byke , so we spared its life, and presently, sure enough, it stopped close by a bees' nest in a hollow tree.
    `This was capital, we thought, and, as we were in a great hurry to taste the honey, I threw in a lot of lighted lucifer matches, but somehow it did not kill the bees at all, but only made them awfully angry, and they flew out in a body and stung me all over. I rushed to Storm and sprang on his back, but, though I galloped away for bare life, it was an age before I got rid of the little wretches, and now my face is in a perfect fever. I think I will get mother to bathe it for me,' and off rushed the noisy boy, leaving Fritz and me to see to the fawns and examine the rabbits.
    With these latter I determined to do as Fritz proposed, namely, to colonize Whale Island with them. I was all the more willing to do this because I had been considering the advisability of establishing on that island a fortress to which we might retreat in any extreme danger, and where we should be very thankful, in case of such a retreat, to possess means of obtaining a constant supply of animal food.
    Having ministered to the wants of the antelopes, I tried to interest the boys in my discovery of the block of talc,