The Swiss Family Robinson in Words of One Syllable by Mary Godolphin

Author:Mary Godolphin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: novel, novels, fiction, classic, classics, easy, language, read, children's, childrens
ISBN: 9781781669389
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII.

OUR fields near Tent House had by this time brought forth good crops of wheat, maize, beans, and peas; but as the work of the Cave had for some weeks kept us on this side of the stream, we did not know in what state we should find our crops at The Nest.

One day we all set out for our old home. We found our corn fields of a rich brown hue, and saw that the wheat was, for the most part, fit to reap. This, and a large patch of rye we cut down, and, as we did so, whole flocks of birds took to wing when we got near them, while quails were seen to run off at the sight of our dogs, who had no lack of sport that day.

We laid by the seed that was quite ripe till the time should come for us to sow it, and put the rest in sacks. Some of the wheat was laid up in sheaves till we should have time to beat out the grain.

When we left The Nest for the Cave, we could not find the hand mill that we had brought from the ship. This now came to light, and we took care to pack it up to take with us, as we should want it to grind our corn.

That night we slept once more in the great tree; but I must say that we did not now sleep so sound there as we used to do, nor did we feel so safe as we did in our rooms at Rock House.

The next day we were to start a plan by means of which our live stock would not want so much of our care. They had bred so fast that we could well spare some of them, and these I thought might be left in some place to seek their own food, and yet be in reach should we want them.

My wife took from her hen roost ten young fowls, and I took four young pigs, four sheep, and two goats. These we put in our large cart, with such tools as we thought we should need, tied the black ox, the cow, and the ass to the shafts, and then set off from The Nest.

We had to cross a wide plain, and here we met with some dwarf plants on which, as Jack would have it, grew snow balls.

Fritz ran to see what they were, and brought me a twig to which clung balls of snow white down. I held it up to show my wife, for I knew the sight would please her still more than her sons.

"See," said I, "this is the COT-TON plant, which you have oft tried to find. It seems to grow here as thick as weeds, and, if I am a judge, it is of the best kind."

We got as much of this as our bags would hold, and my wife took care to pluck some of the ripe seed, that we might raise a crop in our grounds at Tent House.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.