سفری دوباره به کشتی

CHAPTER TEN

A Second Journey to the Ship

The next morning, Fritz and I got up very early. We went to look at our boat. It was in a good state, but it didn’t have a sail. That was now the Tree House roof.

‘I think,’ said Fritz, ‘that we can use long flat pieces of wood as paddles.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but we must get another sail from the ship. The boat will be very heavy with everything in it. There’s still a strong wind. We’ll run back home and tell the others. We’ll go now, and then we’ll spend the night on the ship.’

We went quickly and told them our plans. My wife said, ‘We’ll meet you with the sledge when you come back. Be careful!’

We reached the ship without great problems.

‘Now, Fritz, what do we really need?’

‘I can only think of one very small thing,’ he answered.

‘What’s that?’

‘I want something to catch big fish.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but we can’t eat fish and meat every day.’

‘No,’ he answered. ‘We must have bread, and fruit, and green vegetables.’

‘Do you remember Mr Wilkins, on the ship? He was moving to a new home. I’ll see if I can find his tools. You find a fishing line.’

‘Yes,’ said Fritz. ‘I remember watching one of the officers when he was fishing over the side of the boat. I know which room was his. I’ll look there.’

I went below and found some gardening tools. I also found some seeds. ‘That’s lucky,’ I thought. ‘Now we’ll have lots of different vegetables to eat.’

Fritz came back with his arms full.

‘I remember,’ I said to Fritz, ‘that Mr Wilkins was bringing a light plough with him. Shall I take the plough to the island?’

‘What will pull it,’ asked Fritz. ‘I don’t think the donkey can pull a plough.’

‘No,’ I answered, ‘no, you’re right. But it isn’t very big. We’ll take it. Perhaps we can use it.’

We slept on the ship that night. The next day was windier, and the sky looked stormy. We put a good sail on our boat and started back towards the land.

‘Perhaps,’ said Fritz, ‘we can catch a fish on the way back to the land.’

He put a fishing line over the side and pulled it through the water. Suddenly, we felt something on the line. It was very strong - it pulled the boat back towards the open sea.

‘The fish will carry us away,’ cried Fritz.

‘We must cut the line,’ I said.

‘No, no,’ cried Fritz. ‘Let’s wait.’

Just then, the wind began, and it pushed the boat towards the land. It became stronger and stronger, and we moved faster and faster through the water. The boat was thrown up on to the beach and it broke into pieces.

My wife and the boys were waiting for us. We quickly took our things off the boat and put them on the sledge.

‘There! That’s all,’ I said.

‘No,’ answered Fritz. ‘No! Let’s see if the fish is still with us.’ He went into the water. ‘Yes, it’s still here. It’s dead.’ So we carried the big fish on to the beach and put it on the sledge.

‘This will give us food for days,’ I said, ‘if it doesn’t go bad. We must put it in salt.’

‘But now,’ said Ernest, ‘we haven’t got a boat. What shall we do?’

‘We’ll take the barrels that we used for the boat,’ I said. ‘They’ll be very useful for food and other things. Ernest, you walk along the beach. I think the sea threw one of the ship’s boats out of the water there.’

I was right. There was a boat there. It was badly broken, but we were able to mend it.

We had some of the fish for supper, and it tasted very nice. Then my wife kept some for our meals the next day, and put the rest into a barrel with salt.

After our meal, we sat round the fire. We talked about the things that we had to do in the next few days.

‘You must make a hut for the tools and other large things,’ said my wife. ‘You can’t carry those tools up and down into our house.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘and we must also make some huts for the animals.’

‘We won’t need many huts,’ said Ernest.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Let’s see. I think we’ll have more animals soon.’ And I was right!

‘We must make a garden too,’ I said.

‘A big garden,’ said Fritz. ‘What have we got? Plants and seeds from the ship - and potatoes. And perhaps we can find other plants on the island that we can grow in our garden.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but we must build a wall round the garden. We don’t want the animals to eat the plants. We’ll use bamboo.’

‘Oh, that’s a lot of work,’ said Ernest. Ernest was lazy and didn’t like work.

‘There’s one thing that you haven’t told me,’ said my wife. ‘You’ve told me what we’ll be able to eat next year. But what are we going to eat now?’

‘Ah,’ I said. ‘We haven’t got any potatoes, but there are wild plants. I’m sure that there are sweet potatoes on this island.’

Next morning, we all went out and looked for sweet potatoes. For some time, we didn’t find anything. Then Fritz found a plant and called me.

‘Is this a sweet potato,’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It is.’

We looked around and found more.

Back at the Tree House, my wife cooked the sweet potatoes. They tasted like potatoes, but not as nice. Then she made some of the potatoes into a sort of bread. It was quite hard, but good.