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58 THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
altogether a royal supper for a desert island. By and-by the two dogs, the fowls, the pigeons, the sheep, and the goats had all assembled round us. It did not please the geese and ducks to come too, for they had found a marshy swamp where there were little crabs in abundance; these they ate eagerly.
When we had finished our supper I told Fritz to open a bottle of Canary wine, which we had brought from the Captain's cabin, for dessert. The boys now dispersed to attend to and pet the animals, while my wife told us what had happened on the island while we were away. She made us laugh by her account of Jack's earnestness in the dirty task of stripping the skin from the dead jackal, and of Ernest's fastidiousness. She explained that Jack had originated the idea of putting the large flat-headed nails through the skin with the points outwards to form defensive collars for the dogs ; and that at his request she had sewed a piece of sailcloth on the inner side of the collars as lining, both to keep the nails in place and to prevent their head.s from chafing the dogs' necks.
This was the first day. On the second day the heat of the sun had been very trying, and she had felt so great a longing to get out of its glare she |
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