188 CRUSOE'S ISLAND. 



made a slip noose. Louder and louder he whistled, 

 and finally the iguana's head drooped and it lay su- 

 pinely along the branch. Then, still whistling, my 

 " Friday " softly approached and slipped the noose 

 over the reptile's head. It then awoke, of course, 

 and lashed out wildly with its terrible tail ; but too 

 late, for that night we had some of that same tail 

 cooked for our supper. 



I was in danger of lapsing into a condition preju- 

 dicial to the success of my projects ; of becoming soft 

 and sybaritical, Thomas Ned so adequately supplied 

 my wants and anticipated my every need. To offset 

 this luxurious living I hunted all the harder, taking 

 longer walks, and ransacking the farthest limit of my 

 domain. When I returned, weary and sore, Thomas 

 Ned awaited me with a cooling drink, and later set 

 before me a dish that he had been, perhaps, all the 

 day conceiving and contriving. He insisted, also, 

 upon doing all the taxidermical work while I was 

 away, or while I wrote out my descriptions of our 

 captures ; thus 1 was allowed more time in which to 

 perform the higher duties of my life, and devote my- 

 self to my books and the chronicling of these, my 

 daily doings. 



It was a delightful division of labor, in which 

 Thomas Ned did all the dirty work, and left me free 

 for something more to my liking ! Conscience and I 

 had a wrestle on that subject and several " set-tos " 

 before convinced that it was all the better for all con- 

 cerned, I urging that it was of his. own volition that 

 he undertook this labor, that he was getting fat on it, 



