Jerry by Walter Aimwell

As soon as Mrs. Preston had quieted the baby to sleep, she returned, and / Jerry resumed his story.

"We had got almost to the island, when I stopped," he continued. "We / found it was a pretty mean-looking place. It was rocky and barren, and / there were but few trees, and not much of anything that was green. It / was about two miles long, and half a mile wide. We landed without much / trouble, and pulled our boat into a safe place on the beach, and then / scattered about to see what we could find. We were glad enough to stand / on solid ground once more, I can tell you, even if it was a desolate / island. We had been cramped up in the boat so long that we had almost / lost the use of our legs; but we contrived to get along, after a fashion. / We divided into three parties, and explored the island thoroughly. But / we didn't find much to reward us. The only living things we saw were a / few sea-birds, which had their nests in the rocks on the south side. We / did not find anything fit to eat, except some muscles, and a kind of / crab, and the eggs of the birds. The mate had pulled up some roots, that / he thought we could eat rather than starve, but they didn't have a very / inviting taste, and none of us knew but they were poisonous. We didn't / find any fresh water on the island.