on Burnett
Barty Crusoe and His Man Saturday
CHAPTER ONE
I HOPE you remember that I told you that the story of Barty and the Good Wolf was the kind of story which could go on and on, and that when it stopped it could begin again.
It was like that when Tim's mother told it to Tim, and really that was what Tim liked best about it – that sudden way it had of beginning all over again with something new just when you felt quite mournful because you thought it had come to an end. There are very few stories like that, – very few indeed, – so you have to be thankful when you find one.
This new part began with Barty finding an old book in the attic of his house. He liked the attic because you never knew what you might find there. Once he had even found an old sword which had belonged to his grandfather and which might have killed a man if his grandfather had worn it in war.
One rainy day he found the book. It was a rather fat book, and it had been read so much that it was falling to pieces. On the first page there was a picture of a very queer looking man. He was dressed in clothes made of goat skin; he carried a gun on one shoulder and a parrot on the other, and his name was printed under the picture and it was – Robinson Crusoe.
Now, Barty was a very good reader for his age. He had to spell very few words when he read aloud, so he sat down at once on the attic floor and began to read about Robinson Crusoe as fast as ever he could. That day he was late to his dinner and was late for bed, and as the days went on he was late so often that his mother thought he must be losing his appetite. But he was not. He was only so delighted with Robinson Crusoe that he could not remember the time.
That week the Good Wolf was away on very important business, and if Barty had not had his wonderful book to read he might have felt lonely. The Good Wolf had taught him a special little tune to play on his whistle when he wanted to call him without calling all the other animals.
The day Barty finished reading his book he tucked it under his arm and ran into the wood to his secret place and played his tune, and in less than two minutes he turned round and saw the Good Wolf trotting towards him out of the green tunnel.
Barty ran and hugged him, and while he was hugging him the book under his arm fell down to the grass. "What is that?" asked the Good Wolf, and he went to it and sniffed it over carefully.
"It is a book I have been reading," answered Barty. "It is about a man whose name was Robinson Crusoe. He was shipwrecked on a desert island."
"What is a desert island?" inquired the Good Wolf.
"It is a perfectly beautiful place with a sea all around it. Oh! I wonder if there are any desert islands around here!"
The Good Wolf looked thoughtful. He sat down and gently scratched his left ear with his hind foot.
"Do you want one?" he asked. "Let us make ourselves comfortable and talk it over."
So they sat down and Barty leaned against him with one arm round his neck and began to explain. "A desert island is a place where no one lives but you. There are no other people on it and there are no houses and no shops and you have to make yourself a hut to live in. And beautiful things grow wild – cocoanuts and big bunches of grapes. And there are goats and parrots you can tame so that they sit on your shoulder and talk to you."
"Do the goats sit on your shoulder and talk to you?" asked the Good Wolf, looking a little surprised.
"No, only the parrots," said Barty. "The goats follow you about and are friends with you. The only trouble sometimes is cannibals."
The Good Wolf shook his head. "I never saw a cannibal," he remarked.
"They are not nice," said Barty, "they are savage black men who want to eat people – but you can frighten them away with your gun," he ended quite cheerfully.
Then he told about Robinson Crusoe's man Friday and about everything else he could remember, and the story was so interesting and exciting that several times the Good Wolf quite panted. "Why, I should like it myself," he said, "I really should."
"If we only knew where there was a desert island," said Barty.
The Good Wolf looked thoughtful again and once more scratched his left ear with his right foot, but there was an expression on his face which made Barty open his eyes very wide.
"Do you know where there is one?" he cried out. "You look as if – "
The Good Wolf stood up and shook his pink ear very hard– and then he shook his blue one. "Nothing flew out," said Barty. "I saw nothing at all."
"What flew out did not fly out here," answered the Good Wolf. "It flew out in the place where it was wanted – ten thousand miles away."
Barty caught his breath and clapped his hands. "I know something nice is going to happen," he shouted, "and it's something about a desert island."
"Get on my back and clasp your arms around my neck and shut your eyes," the Good Wolf said. "This is not a trifling matter."
Barty scrambled up joyfully and did as he was told. The Good Wolf's fur felt soft and thick when he laid his face against it. He shut his eyes tight and then just for a few moments he felt as if they both were almost flying over the ground. They went so fast, indeed, and the air sung so in his ears as he rushed through it that it made him feel drowsy and he soon fell asleep.
When he felt himself waking he was quite warm, as if the sun were shining on him. There was a sound in his ears still; it was not the rushing of the air but a sound like rushing of water, which he had never heard before. He had never seen the sea and knew nothing about waves except what he had read in the story of Robinson Crusoe.
He sat up and stared straight before him and his eyes grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger. He was sitting on a snow-white beach and there before him was spread the great blue ocean, and its waves were swelling and breaking into snowy foam, and rushing and spreading and curling on the sand.
After he had looked straight before him for quite five minutes he turned and looked round about him. What he saw was a curve of beach and some cliffs rising from behind it. And on top of the cliffs were big leaved plants and straight, slender palm trees which waved and waved like spreading green feathers.
"I wonder if cocoanuts grow on them," said Barty. "That would be very nice: Robinson Crusoe found cocoanuts."
When he said Robinson Crusoe that made him remember. "Why, it's a desert island," he said. "It's a desert island!"
Then, of course, he remembered about the Good Wolf and he turned round to look for him. And there he sat on the sand a few feet away.
"Were we wrecked?" asked Barty.
"Well, not exactly wrecked," answered the Good Wolf, "but here we are."
"Where is here?" asked Barty.
"Ten thousand miles from everybody," said the Good Wolf.
"Oh," said Barty, and his mouth was very round.
"You said a desert island," remarked the Good Wolf, watching him.
"Yes," answered Barty, trying to speak cheerfully, because he did not want to hurt the Good Wolf's feelings by seeming dissatisfied. "And – and it is very nice and desert, isn't it?"
