more safe. We then got to land, and made fast our freight to the shore. Ere we had done this our friends came to greet us, and give us what help they could to get the beasts out of the stream, and take them up to the tent. The poor things were well nigh worn out; but we took good care of them, and put them to rest on some dry grass that my wife had laid out for them.
That night we did not sup on the ground. My wife had spread a clot on the top of a cask, and we each sat on a tub. With the knives and forks that we had found in the ship we ate a dish of hot ham and eggs, nor did we fail to test the wine that I had brought with me in a small cask from the wreck.
I can now well call to mind the strange scene, as we sat there round the cask, with our two dogs, the fowls, the ape, and the doves, all in the light of the red glow that came from the fire which burnt on the ground just by the tent.
Ere bed time my wife had told me that while I was at the wreck she had gone in search of some place in which we could build a house, and be safe from the wild beasts that we had heard growl in the night.
"And did you find one, my dear?" I said.
"Oh, yes," said she. "We can take you to a great tree that will serve us well, if
