Tuesday, 7 April 2009
The Dog Crusoe
When I heard the story of the 'Crusoe dog', it rang a bell... Of course - The Dog Crusoe by R.M. Balantyne was one of the strange miscellany of bygone books on the shelves of my childhood home. I never read it (despite having greatly enjoyed The Coral Island) and now rather wish I had - the marvellous chapter headings suggest just the kind of adventure I might have relished as a boy. Oddly, no desert islands seem to be involved in the tale though...
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Apparently that was an Australian Cattle Dog, a highly intelligent and resourceful breed. Hmmn, if one has a dog, one could do a lot worse than have one of those ... too big for Paris Hilton's handbag, probably just as well.
ReplyDelete"Dick and Crusoe set off for the
land of the Redskins, and meet with adventures by the way as a matter of course--in the wild woods"
"Adventures by the way as a matter of course--in the wild woods" - that's a very good recipe for life. I do recall spending long hours in the school library reading tales of American settlers and woodsmen in old leatherbound issues of the London Illustrated News. Catching partridges with a pole and a horsehair then baking them in clay from the bank of a creek comes to mind. Seemed like Eden at the time.
I remember that this was the first book I ever read, I was 6 years old (way past John & Jill books). Sad ending if memory serves me. Notice it's free on Kindle
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