Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/385

Rh heath stick, and suspending an egg in its sling at each end, laid the bent stick over Jack's shoulder, and like a Dutch dairy-maid with her milk-pails, he stepped merrily along without inconvenience.

We presently reached a marshy place surrounding a little pool evidently fed by the stream which Knips had discovered. The soft ground was trodden and marked by the footsteps of many different sorts of animals; we saw tracks of buffaloes, antelopes onagas or quaggas, but no trace whatever of any kind of serpent: hitherto our journey in search of monster reptiles had been signalized by very satisfactory failure.

By this brook we sat down to rest and take some food; Fangs presently disappeared, and Jack, calling to his pet, discovered him gnawing at something which he had dug from the marsh. Taking it for a root of some sort, Jack brought it for my inspection. I dipped it in water to clear off the mud, and to my surprise found a queer little living creature, no bigger than half an apple, in my hand. It was a small tortoise.