ALL ABOUT CRUSOE'S "MAN FRIDAY." 149 



He surprised them, you know, at their preparations 

 for the feast, and while they were stupefied with amaze- 

 ment at the desolating fire from his muskets, he killed 

 or wounded nearly all of them. Friday, after he had 

 recovered from his fright, killed six of the Indians, 

 despatching such of them as were merely wounded, 

 and the grand total was nineteen. 



There was one thing, however, that gave me a 

 great respect for Crusoe — even though I had my 

 doubts as to the wisdom of it — and that was the tre- 

 mendous charge of powder and ball he used to ram 

 into his old musket. A handful of powder and " six 

 or seven bullets " was an ordinary load, according to 

 Crusoe ; and he used to shoot it off as calmly as 

 though he were merely exploding a bunch of fire- 

 crackers ! 



Of course, every boy in America remembers the 

 circumstances of the first meeting, when poor Friday, 

 having been brought to Crusoe's island, Tobago, by 

 the cruel cannibals, seized the first opportunity offered 

 for escape, and ran right into Crusoe's arms. It is 

 hard to say which was the more frightened of the 

 two : Crusoe in his horrible armor of shaggy goat- 

 skin, or trembling " Friday " in no skin but his very 

 own. 



But the helpless Indian boy finally settled it by 

 crawling to Crusoe's feet and placing one foot of the 

 strange being on his head, in token of submission. 

 Neither could understand the other's language, at first ; 

 but there was between them a universal speech — that 

 of love and trust — a tie that bound them together and 



