Kitobni o'qish: «Barty Crusoe and His Man Saturday»

CHAPTER ONE

I HOPE you remember that I told you that the story of Barty and the Good Wolf was the kind of story which could go on and on, and that when it stopped it could begin again.

It was like that when Tim's mother told it to Tim, and really that was what Tim liked best about it – that sudden way it had of beginning all over again with something new just when you felt quite mournful because you thought it had come to an end. There are very few stories like that, – very few indeed, – so you have to be thankful when you find one.

This new part began with Barty finding an old book in the attic of his house. He liked the attic because you never knew what you might find there. Once he had even found an old sword which had belonged to his grandfather and which might have killed a man if his grandfather had worn it in war.

One rainy day he found the book. It was a rather fat book, and it had been read so much that it was falling to pieces. On the first page there was a picture of a very queer looking man. He was dressed in clothes made of goat skin; he carried a gun on one shoulder and a parrot on the other, and his name was printed under the picture and it was – Robinson Crusoe.

Now, Barty was a very good reader for his age. He had to spell very few words when he read aloud, so he sat down at once on the attic floor and began to read about Robinson Crusoe as fast as ever he could. That day he was late to his dinner and was late for bed, and as the days went on he was late so often that his mother thought he must be losing his appetite. But he was not. He was only so delighted with Robinson Crusoe that he could not remember the time.

That week the Good Wolf was away on very important business, and if Barty had not had his wonderful book to read he might have felt lonely. The Good Wolf had taught him a special little tune to play on his whistle when he wanted to call him without calling all the other animals.

The day Barty finished reading his book he tucked it under his arm and ran into the wood to his secret place and played his tune, and in less than two minutes he turned round and saw the Good Wolf trotting towards him out of the green tunnel.

Barty ran and hugged him, and while he was hugging him the book under his arm fell down to the grass. "What is that?" asked the Good Wolf, and he went to it and sniffed it over carefully.

"It is a book I have been reading," answered Barty. "It is about a man whose name was Robinson Crusoe. He was shipwrecked on a desert island."

"What is a desert island?" inquired the Good Wolf.

"It is a perfectly beautiful place with a sea all around it. Oh! I wonder if there are any desert islands around here!"

The Good Wolf looked thoughtful. He sat down and gently scratched his left ear with his hind foot.

"Do you want one?" he asked. "Let us make ourselves comfortable and talk it over."

So they sat down and Barty leaned against him with one arm round his neck and began to explain. "A desert island is a place where no one lives but you. There are no other people on it and there are no houses and no shops and you have to make yourself a hut to live in. And beautiful things grow wild – cocoanuts and big bunches of grapes. And there are goats and parrots you can tame so that they sit on your shoulder and talk to you."

"Do the goats sit on your shoulder and talk to you?" asked the Good Wolf, looking a little surprised.

"No, only the parrots," said Barty. "The goats follow you about and are friends with you. The only trouble sometimes is cannibals."

The Good Wolf shook his head. "I never saw a cannibal," he remarked.

"They are not nice," said Barty, "they are savage black men who want to eat people – but you can frighten them away with your gun," he ended quite cheerfully.

Then he told about Robinson Crusoe's man Friday and about everything else he could remember, and the story was so interesting and exciting that several times the Good Wolf quite panted. "Why, I should like it myself," he said, "I really should."

"If we only knew where there was a desert island," said Barty.

The Good Wolf looked thoughtful again and once more scratched his left ear with his right foot, but there was an expression on his face which made Barty open his eyes very wide.

"Do you know where there is one?" he cried out. "You look as if – "

The Good Wolf stood up and shook his pink ear very hard– and then he shook his blue one. "Nothing flew out," said Barty. "I saw nothing at all."

"What flew out did not fly out here," answered the Good Wolf. "It flew out in the place where it was wanted – ten thousand miles away."

Barty caught his breath and clapped his hands. "I know something nice is going to happen," he shouted, "and it's something about a desert island."

"Get on my back and clasp your arms around my neck and shut your eyes," the Good Wolf said. "This is not a trifling matter."

Barty scrambled up joyfully and did as he was told. The Good Wolf's fur felt soft and thick when he laid his face against it. He shut his eyes tight and then just for a few moments he felt as if they both were almost flying over the ground. They went so fast, indeed, and the air sung so in his ears as he rushed through it that it made him feel drowsy and he soon fell asleep.

When he felt himself waking he was quite warm, as if the sun were shining on him. There was a sound in his ears still; it was not the rushing of the air but a sound like rushing of water, which he had never heard before. He had never seen the sea and knew nothing about waves except what he had read in the story of Robinson Crusoe.

He sat up and stared straight before him and his eyes grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger. He was sitting on a snow-white beach and there before him was spread the great blue ocean, and its waves were swelling and breaking into snowy foam, and rushing and spreading and curling on the sand.

After he had looked straight before him for quite five minutes he turned and looked round about him. What he saw was a curve of beach and some cliffs rising from behind it. And on top of the cliffs were big leaved plants and straight, slender palm trees which waved and waved like spreading green feathers.

"I wonder if cocoanuts grow on them," said Barty. "That would be very nice: Robinson Crusoe found cocoanuts."

When he said Robinson Crusoe that made him remember. "Why, it's a desert island," he said. "It's a desert island!"

Then, of course, he remembered about the Good Wolf and he turned round to look for him. And there he sat on the sand a few feet away.

"Were we wrecked?" asked Barty.

"Well, not exactly wrecked," answered the Good Wolf, "but here we are."

"Where is here?" asked Barty.

"Ten thousand miles from everybody," said the Good Wolf.

"Oh," said Barty, and his mouth was very round.

"You said a desert island," remarked the Good Wolf, watching him.

"Yes," answered Barty, trying to speak cheerfully, because he did not want to hurt the Good Wolf's feelings by seeming dissatisfied. "And – and it is very nice and desert, isn't it?"

"It is," answered the Good Wolf. "I chose the kind – like Robinson Crusoe's, you know."

"It is a very nice one," said Barty, "and I am much obliged to you." Then he dug his toe into the sand a little. "I am just thinking about my mother," he said while he was doing it.

The Good Wolf looked as cheerful as ever. "I had something in my pink ear which I shook out as we passed your cottage," he chuckled. "It's a kind of scent like mignonette and it makes mothers forget the time. It's very useful in case of long journeys, because when you come back they never say 'where have you been?' They don't know how long you have been away. I shook out a whole lot when we passed your house and I heard your mother say 'how sweet the mignonette smells to-day!'"

Barty's face was quite cheerful by the time the Good Wolf had finished. "I'm so glad I know you," he said. "You can do everything, can't you?" The Good Wolf looked thoughtful again (which makes three times), and he scratched his ear with his hind foot more seriously than ever.

"Look here," he said. "There is something I shall be obliged to tell you."

"What is it?" asked Barty, feeling very much interested.

"I can't do everything on desert islands."

"Can't you shake things out of your ears?" exclaimed Barty.

"No," answered the Good Wolf. "I won't deceive you. I can't."

Barty could hardly gasp out "Why?"

"Just cast your eye on them, just look at them," said the Good Wolf. "You have been too much excited to notice them before. Do they look as if I could shake things out of them?"

Barty did look at them and he did gasp then. His voice was almost a whisper. "No," he answered.

The tall pink ear and the tall blue ear had dwindled until they were only ordinary Bad Wolf ear size. "There is something in the air of desert islands that makes them dwindle away," the Good Wolf explained. "I could not shake a pin out of them now."

Barty drew a long breath, stood up straight and dug his strong little hands into his pockets. "Well," he said cheerfully, "all right. I asked for a desert island and I've got one. We shall have to look for everything and make everything exactly like Robinson Crusoe did. I believe it will be more fun. Don't you?"

"Sure of it," chuckled the Good Wolf. "Quite sure of it. If we could shake everything out of our ears when we wanted it, it would be scarcely any fun at all. It doesn't make me feel mournful."

"It doesn't make me feel mournful either," said Barty. "Think what a lot of things we shall have to do."

"Yes," the Good Wolf answered. "We shall have to find a place to sleep in and things to eat and a fire to cook them with."

"I wonder where we shall find the fire?" said Barty.

"I don't know yet," the Good Wolf answered, "but on Robinson Crusoe's Desert Island you did find things somehow."

"It will be great fun looking for them – like playing hide-and-seek," Barty said.

There seemed so many new things to do that he did not know where to begin first. But the little curling edges of the waves which came spreading out on the white sand seemed just for that minute to be nicer than anything else. So he sat down and began to take off his shoes and stockings.

"I am going to wade," he said. "I never waded in my life. I forgot desert islands were the seaside."

It was so cool and lovely and splashy and it was such fun to pretend he was going to let a wave catch him and then turn and run, shouting and laughing away from it, that for a few moments he almost forgot about the Good Wolf. But at last as he was running away from a big wave, he saw him come galloping along the beach as if he had been somewhere and was returning.

"Where did you go?" called Barty.

"Come along with me," said the Good Wolf, "and I will show you."

They turned and went back to where the rocks were. There was a large circle of them and inside the circle was a pool of quiet, clear water. "Here is something better than wading," said the Good Wolf. "I felt sure this was here. It is just the kind of a place you find on a desert island when you want to learn to swim. Take off your clothes and I will take you in and teach you."

Barty took off his clothes in one minute and a half.

"Come on," said the Good Wolf. "Catch hold of my hair and hold tight, just at first." And in he jumped and Barty with him.

The water had been warmed by the sun and was as clear as crystal. It wasn't too deep, either.

"Do exactly as I do," the Good Wolf said when they were splashing about together. He could swim splendidly, and Barty imitated him. At first he held on to his friend's thick, shaggy coat with one hand and paddled with the other, and kicked his legs. When he had learned what to do with his hands and feet the Good Wolf made him splash about in the shallower places until he began to feel quite brave, and actually swam a few strokes alone.

"I never, never thought I should learn to swim," he kept shouting joyfully. "See, I'm keeping up all by myself."

"Of course you will learn to swim," said the Good Wolf. "It is one of the first things you have to do when you are wrecked on a desert island." By the time they decided to come out of the water Barty knew that it would not be long before he could swim as if he were a little fish. He felt so proud and happy that he sang out loud as he run up and down in the sun to dry himself before he put on his clothes again. There are no towels on desert islands.

"What shall we do next?" asked Barty when he had finished dressing.

"Well," said the Good Wolf, "supposing now that I could shake things out of my ears what do you think you should ask me to shake out first?"

Barty did not think many minutes.

"My belt," said Barty, "is rather loose by this time. If you could shake things out I think I should ask you to shake out some dinner."

"It's what I should have chosen myself," said the Good Wolf. "What Robinson Crusoe did on his desert island when he wanted his dinner, was to go and look for it until he found it."

"Yes," said Barty, "I suppose we shall have to go and look too."

"All right, it's part of the game," said the Good Wolf. Then he looked at Barty a little anxiously. "Are you very hungry?" he inquired.

"Yes," said Barty, quite like a soldier. "So was Robinson Crusoe. That's part of the game, too."

"Come on," said the Good Wolf. "You are a good companion to be shipwrecked with. There are boys of your age who might have cried and said they wanted to go home."

"Oh, but I said a desert island," answered Barty. "And I meant a desert island. And it will be splendid finding something good to eat when your belt is as loose as mine."

The Good Wolf smiled a smile which reach to his ears, and off they went towards the place where the trees were.