| Share page |
|
$8 THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON |
||
|
had prepared a bird that looked like a goose, the fat of which ran down into some oyster-shells placed there to serve as a dripping-pan. There was. besides, a dish of fish, which the boys had caught; and the iron pot was upon the fire filled with soup, which smelt excellent. Near at hand stood one of the casks which we had recovered from the sea; this had been opened, and was full of Dutch cheeses. All this was hardly what one would expect to see on a desert island, and was very acceptable to two tired explorers.
The bird I discovered was not a goose, but, as Ernest assured me, a sort of penguin, which he had knocked down with a stick.
' It is a very stupid bird,' he added,' and so slow ; it never tried to run away, and sits in one position for hours together, as if it were thinking deeply, and looks like a sack on end. I think it must be the kind called the Stupid Penguin.'
I began asking further questions, in order to draw out the boy's powers of observation, but my wife interrupted me, asking that this discussion might be postponed, in order that, instead of talking about the bird, we could begin to eat him.
At this moment Jack broke in upon us, crying out that he had tried to make the little monkey |
||