. Three young Crusoes, their life and adventures on an island in the West Indies. der and every sand-hill to hide a bur-ied treasure. Henry had spent hours at the ConeyIsland beaches watching men digging and siftingthe sand for rings, bracelets, combs, and beads lostby the bathers, so he knew the fascination of thegame; while to William, everything connected withthe ocean was new and intensely interesting. They picked up one pretty shell after another;they marvelled at the delicacy and beauty of theseaweeds; and inspected the starfish, sea-urchins,sponges, jelly-fish, and other queer creatures


. Three young Crusoes, their life and adventures on an island in the West Indies. der and every sand-hill to hide a bur-ied treasure. Henry had spent hours at the ConeyIsland beaches watching men digging and siftingthe sand for rings, bracelets, combs, and beads lostby the bathers, so he knew the fascination of thegame; while to William, everything connected withthe ocean was new and intensely interesting. They picked up one pretty shell after another;they marvelled at the delicacy and beauty of theseaweeds; and inspected the starfish, sea-urchins,sponges, jelly-fish, and other queer creatures from themysterious deep. They stumbled over long, trail-ing vines that seemed to run everywhere, and raninto clumps of cacti, strumpfia, and pencil bush andthickets of sea grapes, with their broad leaves andlong clusters of purplish-red fruit. Finally, while resting under a clump of cocoanut 82 Three Young Crusoes trees, they caught sight of a mangrove swamp notfar away and went to get a closer view of it. Thetrees had spread like banyan trees and had collected .y^yp sf:i*.S%. Fig. ea grape, at Miami, Florida. earth and trash about their roots so that they werefast filling up the shallow marsh, but there seemedto be no ground firm enough to walk upon yet. I wonder if we could get in there with the canoe,said Henry. I should like to taste some of thosefruits. The words were scarcely uttered when a big al-ligator came toward them on a run with his mouth Chased by an Alligator 83 open as wide as a cellar door, causing the boys toturn and flee in dismay in different directions. Themoment of hesitation, while he was making up hismind which one to chase, was all that saved to the cocoanut trees, the boys fled, and climbedup as high as their remaining breath would permit;but came down when they saw that their pursuerhad gone back to the swamp. Did you ever hear of breaking an alligatorsback by running in a crooked line? said Henry,after his nerves had quieted down a bit. Th


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidthreeyoungcr, bookyear1918