rees and bushes in its headlong course!

On seeing this, Jack said he feared our bower must have been swept away,
and that the boat, which was on the beach, must have been utterly
destroyed. Our hearts sank within us as we thought of this, and we
hastened round through the woods towards our home. On reaching it we
found, to our great relief of mind, that the force of the wave had been
expended just before reaching the bower; but the entrance to it was
almost blocked up by the torn-up bushes and tangled heaps of sea-weed.
Having satisfied ourselves as to the bower, we hurried to the spot where
the boat had been left; but no boat was there! The spot on which it had
stood was vacant, and no sign of it could we see on looking around us.

"It may have been washed up into the woods," said Jack, hurrying up the
beach as he spoke. Still, no boat was to be seen, and we were about to
give ourselves over to despair, when Peterkin called to Jack and said,--

"Jack, my friend, you were once so exceedingly sagacious and wise as to
make me acquainted with the fact that cocoa nuts grow upon trees; will
you now be so good as to inform me what sort of fruit that is growing on
the top of yonder bush? for I confess to being ignorant, or, at least,
doubtful on the point."

We looked towards the bush indicated, and there, to our surprise, beheld
our little boat snugly nestled among the leaves! We were very much
overjoyed at this, for we would have suffered any loss rather than the
loss of our boat. We found that the wave had actually borne the boat on
its crest from the beach into the woods, and there launched it into the
heart of this bush; which was extremely fortunate, for had it been tossed
against a rock or a tree, it would have been dashed to pieces, whereas it
had not received the smallest injury. It was no easy matter, however, to
get it out of the bush and down to the sea again. This cost us two days
of hard labour to accomplish.

We had also much ado to clear away the rubbish from before the bower, and
spent nearly a week in constant labour ere we got the neighbourhood to
look as clean and orderly as before; for the uprooted bushes and sea-weed
that lay on the beach formed a more dreadfully confused-looking mass than
one who had not seen the place after the inundation could conceive.

Before leaving the subject I may mention, for the sake of those who
interest themselves in the curious natural phenomena of our world, th