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150 THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
the best way of transporting him to Falcon Stream. The only way, it seemed, was to carry him on my back, but he was so large that when his fore-paws were on my shoulders his tail dragged on the ground. Thus equipped, looking as if I wore a royal mantle of green and gold, I returned to where we had made a temporary camp.
While we were sitting by the others, recounting this strange adventure, some of the little apples fell from my pockets, and lay on the ground by my side., Nip soon scented them; he came slily up, and, stealing several, began eating them with great eagerness. I myself threw one or two to the bustard, which also ate them without hesitation. So I told the boys they might as well follow this example, and we all ate them with much enjoyment. I began to suspect that they were the sort of fruit called guava.
We had scarcely finished before my wife asked that we might begin our journey home, and as the evening was so far advanced, she suggested that we should leave the sledge, which was heavily laden, to be fetched the following day. I agreed, and loaded the donkey with the bags which contained our new gourds ; the lizard, which I feared might not keep fresh; and little Francis, who |
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