The Swiss Family Robinson Told in Words of One Syllable

in the woods. We took the ass and one of t

now tempt Fritz to waste his shot. We then had to cross a vast plain, and to wade through the high g

I was to find so great a prize. We had up to this time gone to bed as soon as the sun went down, for we had no lamp to use; but as we could now make wax lights, I told Frit

so much of the queer beasts, trees,

t told of strange lands and what was to be seen in them had for me as great a charm as

e chance. Can you tell what is the name of that huge

hich we used to clean our school books." I took a piece of it in my hand, and said, "To be sure it is. What shall we not find in this rich land?" I then told him how the men in the New World made flasks of this gum, in which form it is sent to all parts of the world. "And I do not see why we should

in the trunk of one of these, and found it full of the white dust, which I knew by the taste to be SA-GO. We took all of this that we could get out of the

goods." I knew that she had some fear lest we should one day get lost in the woods, or meet

small hole in the side, and cut out as much as I could, so as to leave but the rind. In this I put the cream, laid a piece on the hole, and bound it up so that none could come out. The boys then held a clot

work was to make a cart. I had brought a pair of wheels

und where they thought they would grow best. On each side of the path that led from The Nest to the Boy's Bridge they put a

e any pains to make The Nest, and all that could be seen near it, look

than we could now climb the rude steps. I knew that a swarm of bees had built their nest in the trunk of our tree, and this led me to think that there might be a void space in it some way up. "Should this prove to be the case," I said, "our work will be half done, for we shall then have but to fix the stairs in the tree rou

got up to it last, and thus did not get more than a sting or two, but the rest were some hours ere they could see out of their eyes. I took a large gourd, which had long been me

ll the holes in the tree but one through which the bees were wont to go in to their nest. To this I put the bowl of a pipe, and blew in the smoke of the weed as fast as

est. Our joy was great to find such a stock of wax, for I could see the comb reached far up t

that the queen bee was not left out. By these means we soon got a h

we did with a long pole, and found it reached a

old casks, built up the stairs round a pole which we made fast in the ground. To do this we had to make a notch in the pole and one in the side of the trunk for each stair, and thus go up step by step till we came to the top. Each day

on his wrist, and to feed from his hand. He once let it go, and thought he would have lost it, but the bird knew it had a good friend, for it came back to the tree at night. From t

they all thought they had a fair right to get some fun out of the pets they coul

s, in the way I had told Fritz it could be done. I do not know what we should have done had we not found the gum tree, for t

h a brood of fine chicks. Some we kept near us, but most of them went to th

hatch for The Nest was of course our first care; then we made a long roof of canes for our live stock, and on this we spread clay and moss, and then a thick coat of tar, so that it was rain proof from end to end. This was held up by thick canes stuck deep in the ground