That night Ready sat up for two or three hours working by candle-light
(William keeping him company), very busily engaged fitting up the
fishing-lines with leads and hooks. At last two were complete.
"What bait must we use, Ready?"
"I should think that the best would be one of the fish out of the shells
which are in the sand; but a piece of pork fat will, I dare say, do as
well."
"And whereabouts would you fish, Ready?"
"The best place, I should think, would be at the farthermost end of the
point, where I got the boat through the reef--the water is deep there
close to the rocks."
"I was thinking, Ready, if those gannets and men-of-war birds would be
good eating."
"Not very, William; they are very tough and very fishy: we must try for
those when we can get nothing better. Now that we have got in the seeds
and potatoes, we must all set to to-morrow morning to fell and carry the
timber. I think Mr Seagrave had better use the axe with me; and you
and Juno can, when I have shown you how, hang the timber to the axle,
and wheel it out to the place where we have decided upon building the
house. And now we had better go to bed."
William, however, had made up his mind to do otherwise: he knew that his
mother would be very glad to have some fish, and he determined, as the
moon shone bright, to try if he could not catch some before he went to
bed; so he waited very quietly till he thought Ready was asleep as well
as the others, and then went out with the lines, and went down to the
beach, where he picked up three or four shells, and, breaking them
between two pieces of rock, took out the fish and baited his hooks. He
then walked to the point. It was a beautiful night; the water was very
smooth, and the moonbeams pierced deep below the surface. William threw
in his line, and as soon as the lead touched the bottom he pulled it up
about a foot, as Ready had instructed him; and he had not held his line
more than half a minute, when it was jerked so forcibly, that not
expecting it he was nearly hauled into the water; as it was, the fish
was so strong that the line slipped through his hand and scored his
fingers; but after a time he was able to pull it in, and he landed on
the beach a large silver-scaled fish, weighing nine or ten pounds. As
soon as he had dragged it so far away from the edge of the rocks as to
prevent its flapping into the water again, William took out the hook and
determined to try for another. His line was down as short a time as
before, when it was again jerked with violence; but William was this
time prepared, and he let out the line and played the fish till it was
tired, and then pulled it up, and found that the second fish was even
larger than the first. Satisfied with his success, he wound up his
lines, and, running a piece of string through the gills of the fish,
dragged them back to the tents, and hanged them to the pole, for fear of
the dogs eating them; he then went in, and was soon fast asleep. The
next morning William was the first up, and showed his prizes with much
glee; but Ready was very much displeased with him.
"You did very wrong, William, to run the risk which you did. If you
were resolved to catch fish, why did you not tell me, and I would have
gone with you? You say, yourself, that the fish nearly hauled you into
the water; suppose it had done so, or suppose a small shark instead of
one of these gropers (as we call them) had taken the bait, you must have
been jerked in; and the rocks are so steep there, that you would not
have been able to get out again before a shark had hold of you. Think a
moment what would have been the distress of your father and the agony
and despair of your poor mother, when this news should have arrived."
"I was very wrong, Ready," replied William, "now that I think of it; but
I wanted to surprise and please my mother."
"That reason is almost sufficient to plead your pardon, my dear boy,"
replied Ready; "but don't do so again. And now let us say no more about
it; nobody will know that you have been in danger, and there's no harm
done; and you mustn't mind an old man scolding you a little."
"No, indeed, Ready, I do not, for I was very thoughtless; but I had no
idea that there was danger."
"There's your mother coming out of her tent," replied Ready.
"Good-morning, madam. Do you know what William has done for you last
night? Look, here are two beautiful fish, and very excellent eating
they are, I can tell you."
"I am quite delighted," replied Mrs Seagrave.
Tommy clapped his hands and danced about, crying, "Fried fish for
dinner;" and Juno said, "Have very fine dinner to-day, Missy Caroline."
After breakfast they all set out for the grove, where Ready had been
cutting down the trees, taking with them the wheels and axle, and a
couple of stout ropes. Mr Seagrave and Ready cut down the trees and
slung them to the axle, and Juno and William dragged them to the spot
where the house was to be built.
They were not sorry when dinner was ready, for it was very hard work.
That night, tired as they were, Ready and William went out, and turned
eight more turtle. They continued felling the cocoa-nut trees and
dragging the timber for the remainder of the week, when they considered
that they had nearly enough, and on Tuesday morning they commenced
building the house.