Swiss Family Robinson ( PDFDrive )

daughters, and Canda, manage the garden, spin, weave, take care of our clothes,
and attend to household matters. Thus we all work, and everything prospers.
Several families of the natives, pupils of Mr. Willis, have obtained leave,
through him, to join us, and are settled at Falcon's Nest, and at the Farm. These
people assist us in the cultivation of our ground, and our dear missionary in the
cultivation of our souls. Nothing is wanting to complete our happiness but the
return of dear Ernest.

Postscript Two Years After

*

We are now as happy as we can desire,—our son is returned. According to my
wishes, he had made out Captain Johnson and Lieutenant Bell, our first visitors,
whom the storm had driven from us, but who were still determined to see us
again. My son found them preparing for another voyage to the South Seas. He at
once seized the opportunity of accompanying them, impatiently desirous to
revisit the island, and to bring to us Henrietta Bodmer, now become his wife.
She is a simple, amiable Swiss girl, who suits us well, and who is delighted to
see once more her kind aunt, now become her mother.

My wife is overjoyed; this is her first daughter-in-law, but Jack and Francis, as
well as Sophia and Matilda, are growing up; and moreover, my dear wife, who
has great ideas of married happiness, hopes to induce Emily to consent to be
united to Fritz at the same time as her daughters are married. Fritz would feel all
the value of this change; his character is already softened by her society, and
though she is a few years older than he is, she is blessed with all the vivacity of
youth. Mr. Willis approves of this union, and we hope he will live to solemnize
the three marriages. Ernest and Henrietta inhabit the Grotto Ernestine, which his
brothers fitted up as a very tasteful dwelling. They had even, to gratify their
brother, raised on the rock above the grotto a sort of observatory, where the
telescope is mounted, to enable him to make his astronomical observations. Yet I
perceive his passion for exploring distant planets is less strong, since he has so
much to attach him to this.

I give this conclusion of my journal to Captain Johnson, to take into Europe, to
be added to the former part. If any one of my readers be anxious for further
particulars respecting our colony and our mode of life, let him set out for the
Happy Island; he will be warmly welcomed, and may join with us in Ernest's
chorus, which we now sing with additional pleasure,—

All we love around us smile,
Joyful is our Desert Isle.

*