Page:The Swiss Family Robinson - 1851.djvu/114

Rh out to meet us. A curious and merry examination commenced. They laughed at my graters; but I let them laugh, for I had a project in my head. The penguins I intended for our poultry-yard; and, for the present, I ordered the boys to tie each of them by a leg to one of our geese or ducks, who opposed the bondage very clamorously; but necessity made them submissive.

My wife showed me a large store of potatoes and manioc roots, which she and her children had dug up the evening before. We then went to supper, and talked of all we had seen in the vessel, especially of the pinnace, which had had been obliged to leave. My wife did not feel much regret on this account, as she dreaded maritime expeditions, though she agreed she might have felt less uneasiness if we had had a vessel of this description. I gave my sons a charge to rise early next morning, as we had an important business on hand; and curiosity roused them all in very good time. After our usual preparations for the day, I addressed them thus: "Gentlemen, I am going to teach you all a new business,&mdash;that of a baker. Give me the plates of iron and the graters we brought yesterday." My wife was astonished; but I requested her to wait patiently and she should have some bread, not perhaps light buns, but eatable flat cakes. But first she was to make me two small bags of sail-cloth. She obeyed me; but, at the same time, I observed she put the potatoes on the fire, a proof she had not much faith in my bread-making. I then spread a cloth over the grounds, and, given each of the boys a grater, we began to grate the carefully-washed manioc roots, resting the end on the cloth. In a