Page:The Swiss Family Robinson, In Words of One Syllable.djvu/111

Rh "Oh, where have you been?" said the boys, all at once, as he came on board. But they scarce got a word from him. He then drew me on one side, and said, with a smile of joy, "What do you think is the news I bring?"

"Let me hear it," said I.

"Then I have found what I went forth to seek, and our search has not been in vain."

"And who is it that you have found?"

"Not a man," he said, "but a girl. The dress she wears is that of a man, and she does not wish at first that her sex should be known to more than we can help, for she would not like to meet Ernest and the rest in that state, if they knew that she was a girl. And, strange to tell," said Fritz, "she has been on shore three years."

While I went to tell the news to my wife, Fritz had gone down to his berth to change his clothes, and I must say that he took more care to look neat in his dress than was his wont at home.

He was not long, and when he came on deck he bid me say no word to the rest of whom he had found. He leapt like a frog in to his light craft, and led the way. We were soon on our course through the rocks and shoals, and an hour's sail, with the aid of a good breeze, brought us to a small tract of land the trees of which hid the soil from our view. Here we got close in to the shore,