Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-04-29
ADVENTURES OF cownrE TOT.

Away out upon the bosom OF the broad
Pacific, upon low-lying coral isle,
covered with stately cocoanut trees and
beautifully colored flowers of every kind,
lives Cowrie Tot, the little. dark-skinned
savage. 1t is always warm and summer
like where Cowrie lives. and his mamma
is never compel ed to wrap him up in
coats and woolen stockings. In fact.
neither Cowrie, his mamma nor any one
else upon the island have ever seen such a
thing as ice or snow. and would probably
be very uch frightened if it was shown
to them.
For this reason the houses they live in
are not at all like our own. They are
merely sheds built Of small poles and palm
leaves, with quite high and heavy slant
ing roof. and both OF the ends are left
com pletely open. so as to allow as much
cool air as possible to pass through. In
stead of beds leads and cribs. they have
hammocks swung from wall to wall, and
their dining rooms, parlors and kitchens
are out in the open air.
Like all other little boys and girls upon
the island, Cowrie Tot is extremely fond
OF playing in the water. From early
morn till late in the daylight he and his
merry playmates spend the best part of
their time in swimming and diving.
Cowric and the other boys and girls are
very venturesome and daring; in fact,
much more so than little children who
have not spent as much of their time in
swimming as the little coral islanders
should ever think of being.
One day when the grown men were
along the shore turning big turtles on
their backs to catch them. Cowrie he
came very much interested. These tur-
ties, which are very large come to these
islands in great numbers ut certain sea-
sons OF the year and climb up on the
white sand beach.
Now. Cowrie was not strong enough
to turn one of these big fellows over. but
he picked out a little one and threw him
self upon its back. He thought his
weight would be too much for the little
turtle to carry, and that he could easily
hold him until some of the men came to
help. But Mr.. Turtle had his own ideas
about the matter as well as Cowrie Tot.
Away went Mr.. Turtle scuttling over
the smooth beach toward the dancing
waves. and away. perched upon his
smooth back, and crying Justify for help,
went little Cowrie Tot.
"Jump off !" cried his father to him,
but Cowrie did not have time. Into the
water they both went together, with
great splash and splutter. Now, of course.
Cowrie stood in no danger of drowning.
for he was most excellent swimmer. and
as the turtle kept at the top of the water.
swimming easily along. he rather en-.
joyed the novel ride and determined to
stick to the turtles back
In very few minutes he was much
further out at sea than he had ever been
before. and he began to think about CON-
seemed to become frightened and dived
down, leaving Cowrie all alone upon the
water.
All at once he saw a long black object
coming directly toward him, with glisten-
ing eyes and sharply pointed head. 1t
was shark; cruel. man. eating shark.
Cowrie Tot knew all about sharks. So
he began to splash with his feet and hands
with all his might and main. and MIR.
Shark kept away from him. But not very
far. though. Over the water came
bounding small boat and in the bow sat
Cowrie's father. with long keen bnife
in one hand. Just as Cowrie came to the
top again in order to get breath his
father jumped into the water. almost
upon top of the shark. The other men
hauled Cowrie into the boat TIE water
was splashed all around while Cowrie's
father was fighting the shark. And the
next thing Cowrie knew the big body of
the shark was floating out to sea.