Swiss Family Robinson

gather our children around us on dry land, we knelt to offer thanks and praise for our merciful escape, and with full hearts we commended ourselves to God's good keeping for the time to come. All hands then briskly fell to the work of unloading, and, oh, how rich we felt ourselves as we did so!
    The poultry we left at liberty to forage for themselves , and set about finding a suitable place to erect a tent in which to pass the night. This we speedily did; thrusting a long spar into a hole in the rock, and supporting the other end by a pole firmly planted in the ground, we formed a framework over which we stretched the sailcloth we had brought; besides fastening this down with pegs, we placed our heavy chests and boxes on the border of the canvas, and arranged hooks so as to be able to close up the entrance during the night.
    When this was accomplished, the boys ran to collect moss and grass, to spread in the tent for our beds, while I arranged a fireplace, surrounded by large flat stones, near the brook which flowed close by. Dry twigs and seaweed were soon in a blaze on the hearth, I filled the iron pot with water, and after I gave my wife several cakes of the portable soup, she established herself as our cook, with little Franz to help her.
    He, thinking his mother was melting some glue for carpentry, was eager to know `what papa was going to make next?'
    `This is to be soup for your dinner, my child. Do you think these cakes look like glue?'
    `Yes, indeed I do!' replied Franz, `And I should not much like to taste glue soup! Don't you want some beef or mutton, Mamma?'
    `Where can I get it, dear?' said she, `we are a long way from a butcher's shop! But these cakes are made of the juice of good meat, boiled till it becomes a strong stiff jelly--people take them when they go to sea, because on a long voyage they can only have salt meat, which will not make nice soup.'
    Fritz, leaving a loaded gun with me, took another himself,* and went along the rough coast to see what lay beyond the stream; this fatiguing sort of walk not suiting Ernest's fancy, he sauntered down to the beach, and Jack scrambled among the rocks searching for shellfish.
    * Even today all adult male Swiss are required by law to possess, and know how and when to use, firearms. A father who did not teach his sons these things, as well as firearms safety, would be very neglectful.
    I was anxious to land the two casks which were floating alongside our boat, but on attempting to do so, I found that I could not get them up the bank on which we had landed, and was therefore obliged to look for a more convenient spot. As I did so, I was startled by hearing Jack shouting for help, as though in great danger. He was at some distance, and I hurried towards him with a hatchet in my hand.
    The little fellow stood screaming in a deep pool, and as I approached, I saw that a huge lobster had caught his leg in its powerful claw. Poor Jack was in a terrible fright; kick as he would, his enemy still clung on. I waded into the water, and seizing the lobster firmly by the back, managed to make it loosen its hold, and we brought it safe to land.
    Jack, having speedily recovered his spirits, and anxious to take such a prize to his mother, caught the lobster in both hands, but instantly received such a severe blow from its tail, that he flung it down, and passionately hit the creature with a large stone.
    This display of temper vexed me. `You are acting in a very childish way, my son,' said I. `Never strike an enemy in a revengeful spirit, or when the enemy is unable to defend itself. The lobster, it is true, gave you a bite, but then you, on your part, intend to eat the lobster. So the game is at least equal. Next time, be both more prudent and more merciful.'
    Once more lifting the lobster, Jack ran triumphantly towards the tent. `Mother, mother! A lobster! A lobster, Ernest! Look here, Franz! Mind, he'll bite you! Where's Fritz?' All came crowding round Jack and his prize, wondering at its unusual size, and Ernest wanted his mother to make lobster soup directly, by adding it to what she was now boiling.
    She, however, begged to decline making any such experiment, and said she preferred cooking one dish at a time. Having remarked that the scene of Jack's adventure afforded a convenient place for getting my casks on shore, I returned thither and succeeded in drawing them up on the beach, where I set them on end, and for the present left them.
    On my return I resumed the