"Be good enough, my philosophical young friend, to fetch a few specimens of these oysters in time for our next meal," said I; "we must all exert ourselves, Ernest, for the common good, and pray never let me hear you object to wetting your feet. See how quickly the sun has dried Jack and me." "I can bring some salt at the same time," said Ernest; "I remarked a good deal lying in the crevices of the rocks; it tasted very pure and good." "If you had brought a bagful of this good salt it would have been more to the purpose. Run and fetch some directly." "Now," said my wife, tasting the soup with the stick with which she had been stirring it, "dinner is ready; but where can Fritz be?" she continued, a little anxiously. "How are we to eat our soup when he does come?" I asked; "we have neither plates nor spoons, and we can scarcely lift the boiling pot to our mouths. We are in as uncomfortable position as was the fox to whom the stork served up a dinner in a jug with a long neck. [Footnote: This is a reference to one of the famous old fables, which you will find in Volume I.] Off with you, my boys; get oysters, and clean out a few shells. What though our spoons have no handles, and we do burn our fingers a little in bailing the soup out." Jack was away and up to his knees in the water in a moment, detaching the oysters. Ernest followed more leisurely, and still unwilling to wet his feet, stood by the margin of the pool and gathered in his handkerchief the oysters his brother threw him; as he thus stood, he picked up and pocketed a large mussel shell for his own use. As they returned with a good supply we heard a shout from Fritz in the distance; we replied to him joyfully, and presently he appeared before us. "Oh, Fritz!" exclaimed his brothers, "a sucking-pig, a little sucking- pig. Where did you get it? How did you shoot it? Do let us see it!" Fritz then with sparkling eyes exhibited his prize. He told us how he had been to the other side of the stream. "So different from this," he said; "it is really a beautiful country, and the shore, which runs down to the sea in a gentle slope, is covered with all sorts of useful things from the wreck. Do let us go and collect them." [Illustration: THE AGOUTI] "But the sucking-pig," said Jack; "where did you get it?" "It was one of several," said Fritz, "which I found on the shore; most curious animals they are; they hopped rather than walked, and every now and then would squat down on their legs and rub their snouts with their fore paws. Had not I been afraid of losing them all, I would have tried to catch one alive, they seemed so tame." Meanwhile Ernest had been carefully examining the animal in question. "This is no pig," he said, "and except for its bristly skin, does not look like one. See, its teeth are not like those of a pig, but rather like those of a squirrel. "In fact," he continued, looking at Fritz, "your sucking-pig is an agouti."