Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/32

8 My eight tubs now stood ranged in a row near the water's edge, and I looked at them with great satisfaction; to my surprise, my wife did not to seem to share my pleasure!

“I shall never,” said she, “muster courage to get into one of these!”

“Do not be too sure of that, dear wife; when you see my contrivance completed, you will perhaps prefer it to this immoveable wreck.”

I next procured a long thin plank on which my tubs could be fixed, and the two ends of this I bent upwards so as to form a keel. Other two planks were nailed along the sides of the tubs; they also being flexible, were brought to a point at each end, and all firmly secured and nailed together. I felt satisfied that in smooth water this craft would be perfectly trustworthy. But when we thought all was ready for the launch, we found, to our dismay, that the grand contrivance was so heavy and clumsy, that even our united efforts could not move it an inch.

“I must have a lever,” cried I. “Run and fetch the capstan bar!”

Fritz quickly brought one, and, having formed rollers by cutting up a long spar, I raised the fore-part of my boat with the bar, and my sons placed a roller under it.

“How is it, father," inquired Ernest, “that with that thing you alone can do more than all of us together?”

I explained, as well as I could in a hurry, the principle of the lever; and promised to have a long talk on the subject of Mechanics, should we have a future opportunity.

I now made fast a long rope to the stern of our boat, attaching the other end to a beam; then placing a second and third roller under it, we once more began to push, this time with success, and soon our gallant craft was safely launched: so swiftly indeed did she glide into the water that, but for the rope, she would have passed beyond our reach. The boys wished to jump in directly;