The Swiss Family Robinson is a Johann David Wyss novel about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Port Jackson, Australia. It was intended to teach Wyss' four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. It includes adventures that are presented as a series of lessons in natural history and the physical sciences. Adventures abound as the family establishes a life on the island. This version is one of a series of 'One Syllable Books' which were selected especially for young people's reading, and told in simple language for the...

As I went through the wild waste of this world, I came to a place where there was a den, and I lay down in it to sleep. While I slept I had a dream, and lo I saw a man whose clothes were in rags and he stood with his face from his own house, with a book in his hand, and a great load on his back. I saw him read from the leaves of a book, and as he read, he wept and shook with fear; and at length he broke out with a loud cry, and said, What shall I do to save my soul?