Swiss Family Robinson

subject of Jack's lobster, and told him he should have the offending claw all to himself when it was ready to be eaten, congratulating him on being the first to discover anything useful.
    `As to that,' said Ernest, `I found something very good to eat, as well as Jack, only I could not get at them without wetting my feet.'
    `Pooh!' cried Jack, `I know what he saw--nothing but some nasty mussels--I saw them too. Who wants to eat trash like that! Lobster for me!'
    `I believe them to be oysters, not mussels,' returned Ernest calmly. "They were stuck to the rocks, so I am sure they are oysters."
    `Be good enough, my philosophical young friend, to fetch a few specimens of these oysters in time for our next meal,' said I. `We must all exert ourselves, Ernest, for the common good, and pray never let me hear you object to wetting your feet. See how quickly the sun has dried Jack and me.'
    `I can bring some salt at the same time,' said Ernest, `I remarked a good deal lying in the crevices of the rocks; it tasted very pure and good, and I concluded it was produced by the evaporation of sea water in the sun.'
    `Extremely probable, learned sir,' cried I, `but if you had brought a bag full of this good salt instead of merely speculating so profoundly on the subject, it would have been more to the purpose. Run and fetch some directly.'
    It proved to be salt sure enough, although so impure that it seemed useless, till my wife dissolved and strained it, when it became fit to put in the soup.
    `Why not use the sea-water itself?' asked Jack.
    `Because,' said Ernest, `it is not only salt, but bitter too. Just try it.'
    `Now,' said my wife, tasting the soup with the stick with which she had been stirring it, `dinner is ready, but where can Fritz be?' she continued, a little anxiously. `And how are we to eat our soup when he does come?' she continued. `We have neither plates nor spoons. Why did we not remember to bring some from the ship?'
    "Because, my dear, one cannot think of everything at once. We shall be fortunate if we do not find even more things we have forgotten."
    "But we can scarcely lift the boiling pot to our mouths," she said.
    I was forced to agree. We all looked upon the pot with perplexity, rather like the fox in the fable, to whom the stork served up a dinner in a jug with a long neck. Silence was at length broken, when all of us burst into hearty laughter at our own folly in not remembering that spoons and forks were things of absolute necessity.
    `Oh, for a few cocoanut shells!' sighed Ernest.
    `Oh, for half a dozen plates and as many silver spoons!' rejoined I, smiling.
    `Really though, oyster-shells would do,' said he, after a moment's thought.
    `True, that is an idea worth having! Off with you, my boys, get the oysters and clean out a few shells. And none of you must complain because the spoons have no handles, and we grease our fingers a little in baling the soup out.'
    Jack was away and up to his knees in the water in a moment detaching the oysters. Ernest followed more leisurely, and still unwilling to wet his feet, stood by the margin of the pool and gathered in his handkerchief the oysters his brother threw him; as he thus stood he picked up and pocketed a large mussel shell for his own use. As they returned with a good supply we heard a shout from Fritz in the distance; we returned it joyfully, and he presently appeared before us, his hands behind his back, and a look of disappointment upon his countenance.
    `Unsuccessful!' said he.
    `Really!' I replied. `Never mind, my boy, better luck next time.'
    `Oh, Fritz!' exclaimed his brothers who had looked behind him. `A sucking-pig, a little sucking-pig. Where did you get it? How did you shoot it? Do let us see it!'
    Fritz then with sparkling eyes exhibited his prize.
    `I am glad to see the result of your prowess, my boy,' said I; `but I cannot approve of deceit, even as a joke; stick to the truth in jest and earnest.'
    Fritz then told us how he had been to the other side of the stream. `So different from this,' he said, `it is really a beautiful country, and the shore, which runs down to the sea in a gentle slope, is covered with all sorts of useful things from the wreck. Do let us go and collect them. And, father, why should we not return to the wreck and bring off some of the animals? Just think of what value the cow would be to us, and what a pity it would be to lose her. Let us get her on shore, and we will move over the stream, where she will have good