We refilled the mangers with the hay we had preserved in the loft, and observing the sky getting more and more threatening, we set out without delay for our house, from which we were yet a considerable distance.

To avoid _Flamingo Marsh_, which was towards the sea, and _Rice Marsh_, towards the rock, we determined to go through _Cotton Wood_, which would save us from the wind, which was ready to blow us off our feet.

I was still uneasy about the ship, which the lieutenant had told me was out of repair; but I indulged a hope that they might have taken refuge in some bay, or found anchorage on some hospitable shore, where they might get their vessel into order.
Jack was alarmed lest they should fall into the hands of the _anthropophagi_, who eat men like hares or sheep, of whom he had read in some book of travels, and excited the ridicule of his brother, who was astonished at his ready belief of travellers' tales, which he asserted were usually false.
"But Robinson Crusoe would not tell a falsehood," said Jack, indignantly; "and there were cannibals came to his island, and were going to eat Friday, if he had not saved him." "Oh! Robinson could not tell a falsehood," said Fritz, "because he never existed.

The whole history is a romance--is not that the name, father, that is given to works of the imagination ?" "It is," said I; "but we must not call Robinson Crusoe a romance; though Robinson himself, and all the circumstances of his history are probably fictitious, the details are all founded on truth--on the adventures and descriptions of voyagers who may be depended on, and unfortunate individuals who have actually been wrecked on unknown shores.

If ever our journal should be printed, many may believe that it is only a romance--a mere work of the imagination." My boys hoped we should not have to introduce any savages into our romance, and were astonished that an island so beautiful had not tempted any to inhabit it; in fact, I had often been myself surprised at this circumstance; but I told them many voyagers had noticed islands apparently fertile, and yet uninhabited; besides, the chain of rocks which surrounded this might prevent the approach of savages, unless they had discovered the little _Bay of Safety_ where we had landed.