Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/329

Rh he's a beauty, though, and it is much pleasanter to gather these lovely shells, than to cut up blubber.”

“Well, let us amuse ourselves with them for the present,” said I, “but in the afternoon, when the sea is calmer, we will return with the necessary implements, and see if we can turn the stranded whale to good account.”

We were soon ready to return to the boat, but Ernest had a fancy for remaining alone on the island till we came back, and asked my permission to do so, that he might experience, for an hour or two, the sensations of Robinson Crusoe.

To this, however, I would not consent, assuring him that our fate, as a solitary family, gave him quite sufficient idea of shipwreck on an uninhabited island, and that his lively imagination must supply the rest.

The boys found it hard work to row back, and began to beg of me to exert my wonderful inventive powers in contriving some kind of rowing machine.