Crusoe's Island: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander Selkirk

rospect was perfectly enchanting. Winding ridges and deep gorges lay before us as we looked back from the ocean; and cool glens, shaded with myrt

ndicular; on the left craggy peaks reared their grizzled heads from masses of dark green shrubbery, like the turrets of ancient castles shaken to ruin by the tempests of ages. Sometimes we had to get down on our hands and knees, and creep over the narrow goat-paths for twenty or thirty feet, holding on by the roots and shrubs that grew in the crevices of the rocks, and at interva

liffs were bleached with the wind, and not so much as a drop of water could be found in any of the hollows that had been washed in the rocks by the rain. In this extremity we sat down on a bank of moss, ready to d

I, "may be there

s," said Abraha

strange plant was, and there we beheld

shing? You see it requires a person like me to find fresh

raham, slowly, "but

rtled at the idea of drinking poison. "Suppose you drink some and try. If

goes better when I have a friend to join me. I'll tell you what I'll do, Luff. You take one bowl and

"that's a fair bargai

eaves, containing each about a pin

ing my bowl; "long life and

id Abraham; "th

that my friend kept looking at me wit

to drink

away,

e go

," for he still kept look

patiently, "what a

ed Abraham, "but I do

an! I'm wait

head,

ah

ch other with great attention. At last, entire

ou want me to

d Abraham; "I'd be

this poison together? for I verily believe it m

anted me to dr

Whereupon we shook hands, and agreed to consider it

TR

eps, when I observed a little bird perch himself upon the edge of a leaf n

he, "birds don't d

lly drink punch or any other kind of poison. It must be water, and good water too, for bir

elicious was the water that we emptied half a dozen leavesful more, and never felt a bit afraid that it would hurt us; for we knew