“Well, well, who’d expect to run up against a porker?” Dave went on to say, as he sought to grasp the full significance of the adventure, having by now recovered from the shock the sudden surprise had given him. “And Giraffe, if a hog this time, what next will we run across? P’raps there might be chickens, and cows, and all sorts of things close by? Mebbe the old island’s inhabited, after all.”
“One thing sure,” Giraffe went on to say, in a satisfied tone, “this beats out Robinson Crusoe by a whole lot.”
“As how, Giraffe?”
“Is there any comparison between hogs and goats when it comes to making a good dinner?” demanded the other. “Why, don’t you see what this means to us, Davy? No use talking about going hungry as long as there’s such noble hunting on this little patch of ground. Me to bag a prize hog, when the right time comes. Hams, and sweet little pork chops, and smoked shoulders—oh! we could live a week off that buster, believe me.”
He smacked his lips, as though the prospect gave him unlimited pleasure. Davy himself had known the time when the slaughter of a three-hundred pound hog afforded no occasion for showing more than passing interest; but that was when starvation did not stare him in the face. Circumstances alter cases; and he was almost as much excited over the outlook now as the always hungry Giraffe seemed to be.
“How do we know that this place we’ve been calling an island isn’t connected with the mainland?” was Davy’s next suggestion.
“How d’ye mean?” demanded his ally, as they started on once more.
“Why, there might be some sort of a link, you see, a sort of isthmus, so to call it, along which the hog made his way, and where we could skip out of the trap; how about that, Giraffe?”
“Nothing doing, Davy,” came the scornful reply; “didn’t we see that the river ran past on both sides like a mill race? Well, it wouldn’t do that if the way was blocked by a strip of land, would it? Not much. We’re marooned on a sure-enough island, and you can’t get around that. Course we might run across a cow yet; same time we’ll keep our eyes peeled for a breadfruit tree, and coffee bushes, and truck gardens. Nothing like being hopeful through it all.”
“Can hogs swim, Giraffe, do you happen to know?”