"It may have been washed up into the woods," said Jack, hurrying up the beach as he spoke.Still, no boat was to be seen, and we were about to give ourselves over to despair, when Peterkin called to Jack and said, -"Jack, my friend, you were once so exceedingly sagacious and wise as to make me acquainted with the fact that cocoa nuts grow upon trees; will you now be so good as to inform me what sort of fruit that is growing on the top of yonder bush? for I confess to being ignorant, or, at least, doubtful on the point."We looked towards the bush indicated, and there, to our surprise, beheld our little boat snugly nestled among the leaves! We were very much overjoyed at this, for we would have suffered any loss rather than the loss of our boat.We found that the wave had actually borne the boat on its crest from the beach into the woods, and there launched it into the heart of this bush; which was extremely fortunate, for had it been tossed against a rock or a tree, it would have been dashed to pieces, whereas it had not received the smallest injury.It was no easy matter, however, to get it out of the bush and down to the sea again.This cost us two days of hard labour to accomplish.
We had also much ado to clear away the rubbish from before the bower, and spent nearly a week in constant labour ere we got the neighbourhood to look as clean and orderly as before; for the uprooted bushes and sea-weed that lay on the beach formed a more dreadfully confused-looking mass than one who had not seen the place after the inundation could conceive.
Before leaving the subject I may mention, for the sake of those who interest themselves in the curious natural phenomena of our world, that this gigantic wave occurs regularly on some of the islands of the Pacific, once, and sometimes twice in the year.I heard this stated by the missionaries during my career in those seas.They could not tell me whether it visited all of the islands, but I was certainly assured that it occurred periodically in some of them.
After we had got our home put to rights and cleared of the DEBRISof the inundation, we again turned our thoughts to paying the penguins a visit.The boat was therefore overhauled and a few repairs done.Then we prepared a supply of provisions, for we intended to be absent at least a night or two, perhaps longer.
This took us some time to do, for while Jack was busy with the boat, Peterkin was sent into the woods to spear a hog or two, and had to search long, sometimes, ere he found them.Peterkin was usually sent on this errand, when we wanted a pork chop (which was not seldom), because he was so active, and could run so wonderfully fast that he found no difficulty in overtaking the hogs; but, being dreadfully reckless, he almost invariably tumbled over stumps and stones in the course of his wild chase, and seldom returned home without having knocked the skin off his shins.Once, indeed, a more serious accident happened to him.He had been out all morning alone and did not return at the usual time to dinner.We wondered at this, for Peterkin was always very punctual at the dinner hour.
As supper-time drew near we began to be anxious about him, and at length sallied forth to search the woods.For a long time we sought in vain, but a little before dark we came upon the tracks of the hogs, which we followed up until we came to the brow of a rather steep bank or precipice.Looking over this we beheld Peterkin lying in a state of insensibility at the foot, with his cheek resting on the snout of a little pig, which was pinned to the earth by the spear! We were dreadfully alarmed, but hastened to bathe his forehead with water, and had soon the satisfaction of seeing him revive.After we had carried him home he related to as how the thing had happened.
"You must know," said he, "I walked about all the forenoon, till Iwas as tired as an old donkey, without seeing a single grunter, not so much as a track of one; but, as I was determined not to return empty-handed, I resolved to go without my dinner and - ""What!" exclaimed Jack, "did you REALLY resolve to do that?""Now, Jack, hold your tongue," returned Peterkin; "I say that Iresolved to forego my dinner and to push to the head of the small valley, where I felt pretty sure of discovering the hogs.I soon found that I was on the right scent, for I had scarcely walked half a mile in the direction of the small plum tree we found there the other day, when a squeak fell on my ear.'Ho, ho,' said I, 'there you go, my boys;' and I hurried up the glen.I soon started them, and singling out a fat pig, ran tilt at him.In a few seconds Iwas up with him, and stuck my spear right through his dumpy body.
Just as I did so, I saw that we were on the edge of a precipice, whether high or low I knew not, but I had been running at such a pace that I could not stop, so the pig and I gave a howl in concert and went plunging over together.I remembered nothing more after that, till I came to my senses and found you bathing my temples, and Ralph wringing his hands over me."But although Peterkin was often unfortunate, in the way of getting tumbles, he was successful on the present occasion in hunting, and returned before evening with three very nice little hogs.I, also, was successful in my visit to the mud-flats, where I killed several ducks.So that, when we launched and loaded our boat at sunrise the following morning, we found our store of provisions to be more than sufficient.Part had been cooked the night before, and, on taking note of the different items, we found the account to stand thus:-10 Bread-fruits, (two baked, eight unbaked.)20 Yams, (six roasted, the rest raw.)
6 Taro roots.
50 Fine large plums.
6 Cocoa nuts, ripe.
6 Ditto green, (for drinking.)
4 Large ducks and two small ones, raw.
3 Cold roast pigs, with stuffing.
