Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/419

 CHAPTER XIV.

had I completed my pottery, when great black clouds and terrific storms heralded the approach of another winter. The rainy season having set in, we were compelled to give up our daily excursions.

Even in the spacious house which we now occupied, and with our varied and interesting employments, we yet found the time dragging heavily. The spirits of all were depressed, and even occasional rapid rides, during a partial cessation of the rain, failed permanently to arouse them. Fritz, as well as I, had perceived this, and he said to me,— “Why, father, should we not make a canoe something swifter and more manageable than those vessels we as yet possess? I often long for a light skiff, in which I might skim over the surface of the water.”

The idea delighted all hands, but the mother, who was never happy when we were on the sea, declared that our chances of drowning were, with the pinnace and canoe, already sufficiently great, and that there was not the slightest necessity for our adding