Barty Crusoe and His Man Saturday

Barty gave a little sniff, too, and then a little jump. There was the scent of mignonette in the air and the last time he had smelt it had been when the Good Wolf had carried him away.

"It's my mother – my mother I was thinking of!" he cried out. "Why couldn't I remember. She'll be wondering where I am. I must go home this minute."

"There," said the Good Wolf. "All right. We will go home. The reason you could not remember was because I made you forget on purpose. If I had not done that you would have been wondering all the time whether you were not too far away and if she was looking for you, and you would not have enjoyed the Desert Island at all. I made her forget, too, so that she has not even missed you. She thinks you have only been playing in the woods a few hours. Has it been nicer than Robinson Crusoe?"

"Yes, yes!" cried Barty.

"Get on my back and shut your eyes," said the Good Wolf.

"I don't want to shut my eyes until I have looked round at the Desert Island again," said Barty. "It is a lovely Desert Island. Could Saturday and Blue Crest come with us?"

He said that because Saturday had come running up and Blue Crest was perched on a rock.

"They can if you like," said the Good Wolf, "but I think you had better leave them here. You will want them when you come back."

"Can I come back?" Barty shouted joyfully.

"Yes – whenever you ask me to bring you. This Desert Island will always be here. Jump upon my back quickly. Your mother is just beginning to remember you."

Barty jumped up, waving his hand to Saturday and Blue Crest.

"I'm coming back, I'm coming back," he said.

Then he laid his cheek on the Good Wolf's fur and clasped his arms round his neck and shut his eyes, and then he was fast asleep again.

When he wakened up he was standing in his own cottage garden, and he went into the cottage and his mother looked up from watering her flowers and smiled at him.

"I was just beginning to wonder where you were," she said. "What rosy cheeks you have. You do look as if you had been enjoying yourself."

And that is the end of this story