Chapter Six The Toad to Shore.
I woke the next day and began to tan the kangaroo hide, as I thought it might come in handy.
When taking a short break, I looked for Ernest and Jack.
My wife thought they might have taken Turk along for company when digging up more potatoes or getting other supplies.
They worried me that they were on their own, but there wasn't much I could do about it.
I left my wife with little Franz while Fritz and I set off for our boat.
As we crossed the bridge, Ernest and Jack sprang out from the bushes, taking us by surprise.
We fell together laughing, and they begged us to take them to the ship.
Instead I sent them back with a message to their mother that Fritz and I would stay overnight on the wreck to get more done.
They sulked away to tell their mother the news.
We took our little boat out on the current and talked together of building another boat to carry heavy items.
Once at the wreck we found the wood we would need for more building, the barrels and beams to make our larger boat, and some empty chests that would be perfect for storage.
Before ending the day, we made our new boat and launched it as we had the last.
After all of that heavy work, hunger overtook us.
We made a great feast from the ship's supplies and slept on mattresses, feeling like kings.
The next morning we took all the chests we could carry, loaded our larger boat with furniture and window frames, more cooking supplies and even a chest of gold.
We also discovered some baby fruit trees still alive that we were thrilled to be able to plant.
These were apples, pears, chestnuts, oranges, almonds, peaches, plums, and cherries.
We loaded tools, paint wheels, spades and shovels, sacks of wheat and dried peas and the parts to make a mill.
It seemed unbelievable that we had found so much, but we understood that it was all supposed to go to start a new colony before our wreck.
Our greatest find by far were the mattresses that we knew would make our family overjoyed.
We counted ourselves lucky indeed.
Fritz, remembering his shark, grabbed a ship's harpoon that he got ready, just in case.
And then, both boats loaded, we were ready to set off.
As we did, I heard Fritz call me from behind the sail.
"'Father!' he called out.
"'Steer this way, quickly!'
I did as he asked and suddenly felt the boat being pulled toward the shore.
I looked around the sail to find an amazing sight.
Fritz had managed to hook his harpoon on the shell of a sea turtle, and it was pulling us to shore with great speed.
As the turtle reached the shore, it pulled itself up on the beach and we had a fine landing.
The turtle was very tired after pulling us and was easy to catch and pull up into one of our tubs.
As we landed, our family ran toward us to see all that we had brought back, including our mighty turtle.
The boys ran off to get the sled so we could transport back as much as possible before nightfall.
We managed to get the turtle onto the sled and then, carrying some of our fruit trees, we made our way home.
Talking about our adventures,
I would like you to look at some roots I found, said Ernest.
I think they might be useful.
In fact, Ernest had found a root that could be made into flour.
It would be lovely to have bread for the first time since we landed.
We all made our way back to camp, and once we had arrived and loaded the treasures we had found.
My wife gave us some sugar cane juice she had made.
That was delicious to drink and we all had some with our dinner.
That night, we slept warmly in our treetop palace on our wonderful new beds.
I woke early to our happy home and, after working for a while, I came back to find everyone still asleep.
They woke surprised at how late it was.
We all laughed and blamed it on the amazing mattresses.
After breakfast, Fritz and I readied ourselves to head back to the wreck again.
This time Jack looked simply too sad, so I took him with us.
He was thrilled to come on the trip and to help us collect a few things to take with us.
Jack was free to explore the wreck, and sure enough, he came out with a great find.
A wheelbarrow.
We made our way back to shore to see a strange sight.
A troop on the beach that looked like stooped men in black jackets and white pants.
Maybe they're pygmies, said Jack.
No, Jack, I laughed.
They're penguins.
When we landed on shore, Jack ran after them.
While most got away, he managed to tackle about six of them, which we decided to take back with us.
We made our way home to find Ernest and my wife, eager for our return.
Once settled in, we all settled down to grinding the root Ernest had found into flour for bread.
We grated it onto a sail, then squeezed the juice out of what we had ground until we had wet flour.
When done, we stored it and planned to make bread the next day.
In the morning, we added water and salt to the flour and put the mixture on a plate heated by the fire, where it baked as if in an oven.
When done?
We were only too happy to eat the delicious treat.
That night we ate penguin, which was fishy and tough, and potatoes.
The other penguins seemed to have become friendly with the chickens.
We set them free and they wandered happily with the flock, perfectly tame.
We all stood in wonder, looking at the strange herd of animals that was now a part of our family.
