Swiss Family Robinson

Ernest, you surely do not know what you are parting with; did you really intend to hand over those good cocoanuts without so much as tasting them?'
    `What? ho ! Are they really cocoanuts?' cried Ernest, `I thought they were bowls! Do let me take them again, mother, do let me look at them.'
    `No, thank you,' replied my wife with a smile. `I have no wish to see you again overburdened.'
    `Oh but I have only to throw away these sticks, which are of no use, and then I can easily carry them.'
    `Worse and worse,' said Fritz, `I have a particular regard for those heavy useless sticks. Did you ever hear of sugar-canes?'
    The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Ernest began to suck vigorously at the end of the cane with no better result, however, than Fritz had obtained as we were on the march.
    `Here,' said Fritz, `let me show you the trick of it,' and he speedily set all the youngsters to work extracting the luscious juice.
    My wife, as a prudent housekeeper who made much use of sugar, was no less delighted than the children with this discovery; the sight of the dishes also pleased her greatly, for she longed to see us eat once more like civilized beings.
    We went into the kitchen and there found preparations for a truly sumptuous meal. Two forked sticks were planted in the ground on either side of the fire, on these rested a rod from which hung several tempting-looking fish, opposite them hung a goose from a similar contrivance, slowly roasting while the gravy dropped into a large shell placed beneath it. Franz gave the spit another turn, assuring me he had been helping all day to keep the meal from burning. In the centre sat the great pot from which issued the smell of a most delicious soup. To crown this splendid array, stood an open hogshead full of Dutch cheeses.
    All this was very pleasant to two hungry travellers , but I was about to beg my wife to spare the poultry until our stock should have increased, when she, perceiving my thought, quickly relieved my anxiety. `This is not one of our geese,' she said, `but a wild bird Ernest killed.'
    `Yes,' said Ernest, `it is a penguin, I think, it let me get quite close, so that I knocked it on the head with a stick. Here are its head and feet which I preserved to show you; the bill is, you see, narrow and curved downwards, and the feet are webbed. It had funny little bits of useless wings, and its eyes looked so solemnly and sedately at me, that I was almost ashamed to kill it. It seemed quite destitute of any intelligence, so that I was able to kill it with a single blow from my stick. Do you not think it must have been a penguin?'
    `I have little doubt on the matter, my boy,' and I was about to make a few remarks on the habits of this bird, when my wife interrupted me and begged us to come to dinner and continue our natural history conversation at some future time. Fritz now suddenly recollected his delicious wine, and producing his flask, begged his mother to taste it.
    `Try it first yourself,' said I; Fritz did so, and I instantly saw by his countenance that the liquor had passed through the first stage of fermentation and had become vinegar.
    `Never mind, my boy,' said my prudent wife, when she learned the cause of his wry faces, `we have wine already but no vinegar; I am really pleased at the transformation. Mixed with the fat which has fallen from our bird with roasting, it will make a most delicious sauce which will be as good a relish as a salad.'
    And so it proved, as a corrective of the wild and fishy flavor of the penguin, as well as improving the taste of the fish. We did full justice to the appetizing meal prepared for us, our gourds coming for the first time into use, and having done it full justice, I produced the cocoanuts by way of dessert.
    `Here is better food for your little friend,' said I to Fritz, who had been vainly endeavouring to persuade the monkey to taste dainty morsels of the food we had been eating. `The poor little animal has been accustomed to nothing but its mother's milk; fetch me a saw, one of you.'
    I then, after extracting the milk of the nuts from their natural holes, carefully cut the shells in half, thus providing several more useful basins. The monkey was perfectly satisfied with the milk, and eagerly sucked the corner of a handkerchief dipped in it.
    The sun was now rapidly sinking behind the horizon, and the poultry retiring for the night warned us that we must follow their example. Having offered up our prayers, we lay down