"It would indeed," I replied, "or any savages that may be here. No, no; let us search diligently, but as quietly as possible."
"But, why, father, should we trouble ourselves about them at all? They left us to shift for ourselves, and I for one don't care to set eyes on them again."
"You are wrong, my boy," said I. "In the first place, we should not return evil for evil; then, again, they might be of great assistance to us in building a house of some sort; and lastly, you must remember that they took nothing with them from the vessel, and may be perishing of hunger."
Thus talking, we pushed on until we came to a pleasant grove which stretched down to the water's edge; here we halted to rest, seating ourselves under a large tree, by a rivulet which murmured and splashed along its pebbly bed into the great ocean before us. A thousand gayly-plumaged birds flew twittering above us, and Fritz and I gazed up at them.
My son suddenly started up.
"A monkey," he exclaimed; "I am nearly sure I saw a monkey."
As he spoke he sprang round to the other side of the tree, and in doing so stumbled over a round substance, which he handed to me, remarking as he did so, that it was a round bird's nest, of which he had often heard.
"You may have done so," said I, laughing, "but you need not necessarily conclude that every round hairy thing is a bird's nest; this, for instance, is not one, but a cocoanut."
We split open the nut, but, to our disgust, found the kernel dry and uneatable.
"Hullo," cried Fritz, "I always thought a cocoanut was full of delicious sweet liquid, like almond milk."