ONE day my parents told me that we were going on a river cruise. I was very excited. I went to school and told my friend Sabik and he wanted to come along as well. He asked permission from his parents and joined us on Saturday aboard the S S Mary Anderson and from there by a hired steamer we were to go to a place Where there were lots of islands.

I got ready at six in the morning and then we went to my friends house and picked him up and started for our trip. We were all so excited. As a precaution 1 took my »and a canteen full of water. I also told Sabik to Ws canteen. We then got on the 8 S Mary Anderson and asked that if they had an available boat or not, they went in and asked the caretaker and he answered yes. The people took us to a brand new boat which had a special room where there were games like carom and chess. We had lots-of fun but we were bored too. So we decided to venture out on a rubber lifeboat and go explore the islands ourselves. We wore life jackets, tiptoed on to the deck and got a boat and oars and hurriedly started rowing. After fifteen minutes we finally got to an island, we then went to the forest and started roaming around. It was so beautiful.

There were lots of flowers and plants. The best thing was the huge parrots which were swanking and calling loudly. Sabik found a big stick and made it into a bow with some string which he brought from his home. Then I got some sticks and cut those into sharp arrows and gave them to Sabik. we then aimed at the coconuts and shot at them. We cut them with my knife and had the water from it. It was the most tasty coconut water I had in my life!. I then saw that it was almost time for us to leave so 1 told Sabik that we've got to leave. We went to the coast and saw that our boat was drifting away so Sabik quickly jumped into the water and got the boat and then we got into it and rowed until we got to the main boat, quickly changed into dry clothes and arrived at the dining room and had lunch with the rest of the people and no one knew that we had such an adventure!