A Two-Year Vacation

Jules Verne(1828～1905)

One dark night in March, 1860, a ship was sailing through a violent storm with huge waves. The ship was about to be broken into pieces by the wild sea.

On the deck, four boys were trying very hard to save the ship from the night storm. They were Gordon, Brian, Denipan and Moco. Gordon was fourteen. Brian and Denipan thirteen, and Moco twelve. Below the deck, there were eleven little children sleeping.

The children were all students at the Chairman School in Auckland, New Zealand. Two days earlier, when they came together on a ship for a school trip, the rope was cut by accident, and the ship washed away to sea. Unfortunately, the captain and his men had left the ship to have a drink. So the ship was in the hands of the fifteen boys!

In the early morning, Moco suddenly cried, "Land! Land!" The boys ran up to the deck to see where Moco was pointing. A few minutes later, the ship managed to land on shore. At last, they were on land!

The boys stepped on the land with great joy. It looked like a desert island, but it didn't matter to them. However, they began to worry about their uncertain future on this desert island.