Part 9 (1/2)
When Jack departed without telling his companions what he meant to do, Ned and Charley went up the sh.o.r.e with the cast net, and managed, within an hour or two, to secure a good supply of shrimps, one or two mullets, and a few oysters, though they discovered no oyster bed, as they had expected to do. They hoped to accomplish this by a longer journey along the sh.o.r.e, to be made on some other day. Having enough fish and shrimps for immediate use, they wished now to see what could be done toward securing a supply of vegetable food. They discovered no palmetto trees, but gave their attention to the wild grapes, of which there were a good many in the woods.
It was well past mid-day when Ned and Charley, loaded with their spoils of sea and land, returned to the camp. There they found Jack, sitting on a log meditating.
”Boys,” he said, ”the important thing is not to let any thing discourage us. We must keep a stiff upper lip, no matter what happens.”
”Yes, certainly,” said Charley, ”but what's the special occasion of this lecture?”
”You are sure that no matter what happens, you'll not give up, or grow scared, or get excited in any way?” asked Jack.
”Well, I must say--” began Charley.
”Hush, Charley,” said Ned; ”something's wrong. Let's hear what Jack has to say.”
”What is it, Jack? Tell us quick.”
”Well, only that we're out of food.”
”What do you mean?”
”Why, that some animal or other has robbed us while we were all away from camp! Every thing's gone, even to the box of salt and the coffee.
We haven't a thing to eat except what you've brought with you.”
CHAPTER X.
PLANS AND DEVICES.
To say that the boys were shocked and distressed by their new mishap, is very feebly to express their state of mind. There was consternation in the camp, from which Jack alone partially escaped. Jack had an uncommonly cool head. In ordinary circ.u.mstances there was nothing whatever to distinguish him from other boys. He rushed into difficulties as recklessly as anybody--as he did on the first day when he tried to use the cast net,--and joined in all sports and boyish enterprises with as little thought as boys usually show. But in real difficulty Jack Farnsworth was seen in a new light. He was calm, thoughtful, resolute, and full of resource. Ned had his first hint of this during that last voyage of the _Red Bird_, and as their difficulties multiplied both Ned and Charley learned to look upon Jack as their leader. They turned to him now precisely as if he had been much older than themselves, and asked:
”What on earth are we to do, Jack?”
”First of all,” Jack replied, ”we are to keep perfectly cool. Excitement will not only keep us from doing the best that we can, but it will weaken us and unfit us for work, even if it doesn't bring on actual sickness, which it may do. Care killed a cat, you know. We positively must not get excited. After all, what occasion for uneasiness is there?
We are pretty genuine Crusoes now, but we can stand that. We are literally wrecked upon a deserted island. We have lost our boat and our boots, our hats, our gun and our supply of provisions, and so we are not quite so well situated as Robinson Crusoe was; but on the other hand we're not going to stay here year after year as he did, and besides there are three of us to keep each other company.”
”Well, company's good, of course,” said Charley Black, ”but I'm not so sure on the other points.”
”How do you mean?” asked Ned.
”I'm not so sure about our getting away sooner than Crusoe did. I don't see how we're to get away at all for that matter, but may be somebody will rescue us after twenty-eight years or so.”
”Well, if they do,” said Ned, ”won't it be jolly fun to go back to school then, with long whiskers, and make old Bingham take us through the rest of Caesar!”
Ned was naturally buoyant in spirits, and the spice of difficulty and danger in their situation had now begun to stimulate his gayety instead of depressing him. He was of too hopeful a nature to believe that their enforced stay upon the island was likely to be very greatly prolonged, although, if put to the proof, he had no more notion than Charley Black had, of a possible means of escape.
”Yes,” answered Jack Farnsworth, ”and after that length of time we'll have a lot of things to learn besides Latin. We'll have to study geography all over again to find out how many States there are in the Union, and whether France has swallowed Germany, or Russia has conquered England and moved her capital to London. Then, again, Ned, your science will be out of date, and you won't dare to mention oxygen even, for fear that somebody has found long ago that there isn't any such thing as oxygen. We'll be regular Rip Van Winkles. Who knows? Perhaps we shall find the United States turned into an empire, and steam-engines forgotten, and electricity, or something that we've never heard of, doing the world's work. On the whole, I think if we stay here twenty-eight years, it will be better not to leave the island at all.”
The banter between Ned and Jack was kept up in this way for some time, Ned talking for fun merely, while Jack talked for the purpose of overcoming poor Charley's evident depression of spirits. Finally Jack said:
”But we're not going to be Rip Van Winkles or even Crusoes very long.