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THE ANIMALS SWIM ASHORE 53 |
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taking him to the edge of the ship and then suddenly shoving him off. He fell into the water, and for a moment disappeared; but we soon saw him rise and begin to strike out.
Next came the cow's turn, and as she was infinitely more valuable than the donkey, I was more afraid of losing her. We pushed her overboard, however, and she reached the water safely ; when there, she did not sink so low, and she made her way toward the land with gravity, and, if I may so express it, a sort of dignified composure. So one by one we threw all the animals into the water, where by-and-by they appeared floating at their ease, and seemingly quite happy. The sow was the only exception. She became furious, set up a loud squalling, and struggled with much violence in the water. We had now not a moment to lose. We sprang into our boat, and were soon in the midst of our farmyard. We carefully gathered all the floating bits of wood at the end of the strings, so soon as we could reach them, and fastened them to the stern of the boat. When everything was fixed, we hoisted our sail, which luckily acted well enough, and the wind, being in the right direction, blew us along merrily.
We now saw how impossible it would have been
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