The Swiss Family Robinson

Storm-tossed--Wrecked--Deserted--Supper--We make swimming-belts for the children--An anxious night--The gale moderates--We examine our cargo--Jack introduces two new acquaintances--How shall we get on shore?--Jack's plan--We adopt it--The use of a lever--Our tub-boat completed--Another night on the wreck--We collect the cargo--And embark--Jack's friends will not be left behind--Steer for the shore--Once more on land--We erect a tent--Glue soup--Jack makes the acquaintance of a lobster--Ernest shirks the water--Oysters and salt--How shall we eat our soup?--Ernest solves the difficulty--Fritz returns--The sucking pig--How to open an oyster and how to eat it--The dogs devour the agouti--Fritz's anger--Our first night in the new country, 1

CHAPTER II.

A morning consultation--Breakfast--Away on an expedition--Over the stream and through the grass--An unexpected reinforcement--Search in vain for our comrades--Rest by a stream--Fritz finds a "round bird's nest"--Natural history of a cocoanut--Calabash trees--The use of gourds--How to make a bottle--A lovely but lonely scene--Sugar-canes--Monkeys of use--Cocoanut milk turned to champagne--Turk kills an unfortunate mother monkey--Carry the orphan home--Display our treasures--A sumptuous supper--Ernest's penguin--Champagne turned to vinegar--A fight with jackals--A curious sentinel--A visit to the wreck--We rig our craft--Stow a cargo--Sleep on board--Floats for our herd--We embark--Encounter a shark--Land--Relate our adventures, 19

CHAPTER III.

The mother relates her adventures--Proposes that we should build a nest--How Jack treated the jackal skin--How the boys were surprised by a bustard--How they found the mangrove tree--How the dogs caught the crabs--We discuss the possibility of making a house in the tree--To bed once more--We start for the wreck--The shark again--Return to land--Franz's crawfish--Bridge building--We pack up--A family removing in patriarchal style--A prickly enemy--Jack shoots it--We reach our new home--Fritz rids our poultry of an enemy--Little Franz finds the figs--Dinner--We prepare materials for our nest--Flamingoes--Roast and tame--The use of trigonometry--A cord carried over the bough--The rope ladder made--We mount our tree--Sleep under the roots--The building of the nest--Retire to roost for the first time, 44

CHAPTER IV.

A day of rest--A parable for the young people--Quiet recreation--Geographical nomenclature--The margay and porcupine skins made of use--An expedition to Tentholm--Potatoes, potatoes--Tropical vegetation--The use of the karatas--Jack's greediness and its punishment--Ernest discovers cochineal--Arrive at Tentholm--The poultry rebellious--Return to Falconhurst--Ernest roused out early--We collect wood for a sledge--Master Knips turns thief--Franz's plan for the saving of ammunition--Ernest and I take the sledge to Tentholm--Ernest's laziness exemplified--He catches a salmon--We start for home--Kill a kangaroo--And cook it, 73

CHAPTER V.

Jack and Ernest disappear--Fritz and I start for the wreck--The boys' ambuscade--We form a raft--Ransack the vessel--Again embark--A turtle in sight--Fritz harpoons it--The turtle acts as "Steam Tug"--Safe ashore--Return home--Jack's clay field--A fresh discovery--The mother's cellar--A trip to the wreck--The pinnace--Jack's raid on the Lilliputians--A secret revealed--A new method of grinding flour--Wholesome or poisonous?--Bread-making in earnest, 92

CHAPTER VI

Now for the pinnace--Repeated visits to the wreck--The pinnace built--How shall we cut her out--The difficulty solved--We fit her out--Fire a salute--The mother's surprise--We visit Falconhurst--Attend to our fruit trees--Athletics--The lasso--An excursion--A bustard captured--Ernest discovers a magician--Jack fights him--The Liane Rouge--We turn carvers--Ernest's alarm--The old sow again--We discover a sleeping beauty--Return with it to the camp--Knips pronounces our apples "good"--Return to Falconhurst, 108

CHAPTER VII.