The Swiss Family Robinson; or, Adventures on a Desert Island

by Johann David Wyss

I carefully thought over the project, and turned over every plan for its accomplishment.

"It would be impossible, I am afraid," said I, "to make stairs outside, but within the trunk it might be done. More than once have I thought that this trunk might be hollow, or partly so, and if such be the case our task would be comparatively easy. Did you not tell me the other day that you noticed bees coming from a hole in the tree?"

"Oh, yes," said little Franz, "and I went to look at them and one flew right against my face and stung me, and I almost cried, but I didn't."

"Brave little boy," said I. "Well, now if the trunk be sufficiently hollow to contain a swarm of bees, it may be, for all we can tell, hollow the greater part of its length, for like the willow in our own country it might draw all its nourishment through the bark, and in spite of its real unsoundness retain a flourishing appearance."

Master Jack, practical as usual, instantly sprang to his feet to put my conjecture to the proof. The rest followed his example, and they were all soon climbing about like squirrels, peeping into the hole, and tapping the wood to discover by sound how far down the cavity extended.

They forgot, in their eagerness, who were the tenants of this interesting trunk. They were soon reminded of it, however, for the bees, disturbed by this unusual noise, with an angry buzz burst out, and in an instant attacked the causers of the annoyance; they swarmed round them, stung them on the hands, face, and neck, settled in their hair, and pursued them as they ran to me for assistance. It was with difficulty that we got rid of the angry insects and were able to attend to the boys. Jack, who had been the first to reach the hole, had fared the worst, and was soon a most pitiable sight, his face swelled to an extraordinary degree, and it was only by the constant application of cold earth that the pain was alleviated. They were all eager to commence an organized attack upon the bees at once, but for an hour or more, by reason of their pain, they were unable to render me much assistance. In the meanwhile I made my arrangements. I first took a large calabash gourd, for I intended to make a beehive, that, when we had driven the insects from their present abode, we might not lose them entirely. The lower half of the gourd I flattened. I then cut an arched opening in the front for a doorway, made a straw roof as a protection from the rain and heat, and the little house was complete.

Nothing more, however, could then be done, for the irritated bees were still angrily buzzing round the tree. I waited till dark, and then, when all the bees had again returned to their trunk, with Fritz's assistance I carefully stopped up every hole in the tree with wet clay, that the bees might not issue forth next morning before we could begin operations. Very early were we up and at work. I first took a hollow cane, and inserted one end through the clay into the tree; down this tube with pipe and tobacco I smoked most furiously.

The humming and buzzing that went on within was tremendous; the bees evidently could not understand what was going to happen. I finished my first pipeful, and putting my thumb over the end of the cane, I gave the pipe to Fritz to refill. He did so and I again smoked. The buzzing was now becoming less noisy, and was subsiding into a mere murmur. By the time I had finished this second pipe all was still; the bees were stupefied.

"Now then, Fritz," said I, "quick, with a hammer and chisel, and stand here beside me."

He was up in a moment, and, together, we cut a small door by the side of the hole; this door, however, we did not take out, but we left it attached by one corner that it might be removed at a moment's notice; then giving the bees a final dose of tobacco smoke, we opened it.