Back Aa

Puss Junior and Robinson Crusoe

Close

<hr style="width: 65%;" />[21] <h2>ARKVILLE</h2> <div class='cap'>THE next morning when Puss, Junior, went down to the river, he found his boat was gone.</div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/gs05.png" width-obs="274" height-obs="350" alt="Walking in the rain" title="" /></div> "Now I must trust again to my red-topped boots," he sighed, and at once set off to find his dear father. By and by he saw a little man in the distance, who, on coming nearer, turned out to be Tom Thumb.[22] Puss picked him up and placing him on his shoulder, set off once more. But, goodness me! It soon began to rain, and Tom Thumb crept into a pocket to keep dry. Towards the middle of the day they arrived on the outskirts of a small village. In the distance they could hear the strokes of a hammer, and then, now and again, the whirr of a saw cutting into hard wood. "What's going on, I wonder?" said Tom Thumb; "sounds as if they were building a house." "Don't know," answered Puss, "but let's hurry, for I am soaked to the skin." On arriving in the village they saw what appeared to be an immense boat in the early stages of construction. It was being erected in the city square, the little park that stood in the midst of the stores and houses. Drawing nearer they heard a voice singing: <div class='poem'> "Noah of old did build an Ark Of spicy gopherwood and bark To float upon the deluge dark. Now on this Ark they had no sail, For it was made (and true the tale) Without a mast to break the gale." </div> When Puss and Tom halted at the side[23] of the Ark a kind-looking man stopped his hammering and said: "It's going to rain for forty days and forty nights. There's going to be an awful deluge. You'd better stay in Arkville and get aboard the Ark as soon as it's finished. If you don't you'll get drowned." "He speaks the truth, I'm thinking," answered Tom Thumb, peeping out of Puss, Junior's, pocket. "It looks to me as if the rain were never going to stop." "My good sir," said Puss, turning to the man, "it seems to me your advice is good. We'll stay in Arkville for a few days. But where shall we stop? Is there a hotel near?" "Over yonder is the Hotel Ark," said the man. "I'm the proprietor, and my name is Noah. Go in and make yourselves at home. My sons and I will follow you shortly. We have a few more nails to drive before we quit for the day." <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2