Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/42

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16
THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON.

in a deep pool, and as I approached, I saw that a huge lobster had caught his leg in its powerful claw. Poor Jack was in a terrible fright; kick as he would, his enemy still clung on. I waded into the water, and seizing the lobster firmly by the back, managed to make it loosen its hold, and we brought it safe to land. Jack, having speedily recovered his spirits, and anxious to take such a prize to his mother, caught the lobster in both hands, but instantly received such a severe blow from its tail, that he flung it down, and passionately hit the creature with a large stone. This display of temper vexed me. “You are acting in a very childish way, my son,” said I. “Never strike an enemy in a revengeful spirit.” Once more lifting the lobster, Jack ran triumphantly towards the tent.


LOBSTER.


“Mother, mother! a lobster! A lobster, Ernest! look here, Franz! mind, he'll bite you! Where's Fritz?” All came crowding round Jack and his prize, wondering at its unusual size, and Ernest wanted his mother to make lobster soup directly, by adding it to what she was now boiling.

She, however, begged to decline making any such experiment,