LEFT BEHIND
Very calm was the sea over which Bunny and Sue were being rowed
toward the cocoanut island, as the children called it. The waves were
not at all high and the ocean was more like Sandport Bay, on which
Bunker Blue often took the Brown children for a row.
“It hardly seems like the ocean at all,” said Mrs. Brown.
“True,” agreed her husband. “We could almost land on the island
through the open surf.”
“Better not try it, though,” said one of the sailors, whose name was
Will Gand. “We’ll put in the little bay.”
“It will be safer,” agreed the other man from the _Beacon_. His name
was Sam Trend. “We might get in safe, because there isn’t much surf
to speak of,” he went on. “But sometimes a big roller will come
up out of the calmest sea, and it might upset the boat and get the
children’s feet wet.”
“I could take off my shoes and stockings and wade,” declared Sue.
“Yes, but Sam is right,” said Mrs. Brown. “We don’t want to get wet
when there is no need.”
“We’re often wet,” announced Sue.
“I wouldn’t be afraid if the boat upset!” boasted Bunny. “I can swim!”
“So can I!” added Sue, and it was true. Young as they were, the
two little Browns had been taught by their father to take care of
themselves in the water.
“Well, if the boat upset the things to eat in it might get wet,” said
the sailor, Will Gand. “That would be a pity.”
“Oh, have we got things to eat in this boat?” cried Bunny. “I didn’t
know that! We can have a picnic on the island, can’t we?”
“I had one of the stewards pack up some food in a basket,” said Mr.
Brown, pointing to a large hamper under a seat. “I thought maybe we
would eat our lunch here. It will be afternoon before the tide will
rise high enough to float the ship.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that your picnic lunch would get wet,” said the
sailor who had spoken of the danger of the boat upsetting. “I meant
that the provisions this boat is stocked with might get soaked.”
“Is there other food in this boat than that which Mr. Brown has in
the basket?” asked Mrs. Brown.
“Oh, yes’m,” said Will Gand. “You see Captain Ward always keeps his
lifeboats stocked with things to eat. He says you never can tell when
you’ll have to launch them in a hurry, and there might be no time
in case of a wreck when you have to leave the ship in a rush to put
things in the boats. So they’re kept stocked.”
“And there’s fresh water on board this boat, too.” The sailor pointed
to a locker, or compartment, up in the bow and nodded toward another
locker in the stern. “They are both well filled with things to eat,”
he said. “It’s mostly canned stuff, though.”
“Oh, well, that would keep us alive if we had to stay here,” said
Mr. Brown, with a laugh. “That’s a good idea of Captain Ward’s—to
have the lifeboats stocked with food and water.”
“Yes,” agreed Sam Trend. “You never can tell when you’re going to be
wrecked, and sometimes you have to take to the boats a thousand miles
from land. In that case the shipwrecked ones could live for a week or
more on what’s aboard.”
“But we aren’t shipwrecked, are we?” asked Bunny.
“No, little man, you aren’t,” answered Will Gand. “But if we had been
going fast and had hit the sand-bar harder, we might be going to
pieces now instead of having our ship safe and sound.”
“I don’t like to think of it,” said Mrs. Brown.
By this time the boat was nearer the island and it could be seen
that Bunny’s guess was right—the trees that fringed the shore were
cocoanut palms.
“And if there are cocoanuts on them can we eat some?” Sue asked.
“We’ll see about it,” was her mother’s answer.
“Cocoanuts are all right if you don’t eat too many,” said Sam Trend.
“The milky pulp of a cocoanut makes a fine drink.”
“I want some!” announced Bunny Brown.
“Be patient until you get on shore,” said his father.
The boat was rowed around to the little bay where two long,
sheltering rocky points kept the big waves from breaking. It was a
calm and safe place to land.
The boat grated on the sandy, pebbly shore, and as one of the sailors
jumped out to pull it farther up the beach, Bunny scrambled over the
edge.
“I’m on shore! I’m on shore!” he cried, gayly dancing about.
“It certainly is a good feeling to know we are once more on solid
land,” sighed Mrs. Brown, with an air of contentment. “I like
voyaging,” she added quickly, “but I’m glad to be ashore once again.”
“Yes, so am I,” said Mr. Brown.
Sue was lifted out of the boat, and then the sailors took out the
basket of lunch and carried it up, putting it under some of the
green, graceful palm trees. Mr. Brown told the sailors they could
roam about wherever they liked, but to come back to the boat at noon,
when they would be given something to eat.
“Thank you, sir,” said Will, touching his cap, and Sam did likewise.
Then Mr. Brown stretched out on his back under one of the palm trees.
“Oh, it’s fine here!” he said with a long breath of contentment.
“Lovely,” agreed his wife.
“I’m going to get a cocoanut!” cried Bunny.
“Don’t eat any without showing them to us first!” warned his mother,
as Sue and the little boy raced off toward another clump of trees
which were laden with nuts. “He might eat the wrong thing,” she added.
“You can’t make much of a mistake with a cocoanut,” said Mr. Brown,
laughing. “Still, it’s best to be on the safe side. Anyhow, they
can’t open a cocoanut without help. I guess we’ll have to depend on
the big knives of the sailors for that.”
A little later Bunny and Sue came running back, each with a large
cocoanut, having picked them up off the ground where they had
doubtless been blown by the late storm.
“Open it and let us drink some of the juice!” begged Bunny.
Mr. Brown called to the sailors, and with their heavy clasp knives
they cut through the soft, but thick, fibrous husk which encloses all
cocoanuts. The nut itself was much smaller than it appeared on first
view, and the shell enclosing the white meat was much thinner than
the husk covering.
On the end of each inner nut were three small dark dots, and, being
softer than the rest of the shell, these places were easily pierced
by a sort of drill blade, or punch, in Will’s knife.
“Now, if you have a cup I’ll pour the milk out for you,” he said to
Bunny, for he had first opened the nut of the little boy.
There were cups in the lunch basket, and into one of these was soon
gurgling the white, sweet milky fluid—the milk of the cocoanut, than
which there is no better drink.
Bunny and Sue much enjoyed theirs. Other nuts were gathered and
opened, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, as well as the sailors, drinking the milk.
Then Bunny and Sue played on the sand, finding pretty shells and
pebbles and now and then a bit of coral. The two sailors strolled
down the sands while Mr. and Mrs. Brown rested under the shade of the
cocoanut palm trees.
They could look off to the _Beacon_ which was still aground on the
sand-bar, no effort having as yet been made to pull her off into deep
water.
Almost before the children realized it noon had come, and Mrs. Brown
set out a lunch from the well-filled basket. Some was given the
sailors, who took their portions down near the rowboat, pulled up on
the beach.
“That steward gave us enough for several meals,” said Mrs. Brown. “We
shall have to take a great deal of it back with us. There is no use
leaving it here on the island. No one lives here.”
[Illustration: THE BOAT WAS ROWED AROUND TO A LITTLE BAY.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean. Page 161_
]
“No, I guess no one does,” said Mr. Brown. But he was mistaken about
that. “Though if we stay until late this afternoon, as we may,” he
went on, “Bunny and Sue will probably want to eat again.”
“I suppose so,” said his wife.
The voyagers wandered about the island, and in one place they found
a small spring of water trickling down over the rocks in a little
cataract. They drank this water in preference to some they had
brought with them from the ship.
“Well, it’s time we began to think of going back, I guess,” said Mr.
Brown, as the shadows began to lengthen toward the east.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Brown. “Look, they are starting to move the _Beacon_
off the sand bar, I believe!”
She pointed to the stranded steamer, from the funnel of which black
smoke was pouring.
“They’re starting the engines,” said the sailor, Will Gand.
“And they’ll have her off soon, for it’s high water now,” added his
mate.
“The ship won’t go away and leave us, will it?” asked Bunny.
“Of course not!” laughed his mother.
As they were getting ready to enter the boat to row back to the
steamer one of the sailors cried:
“There! She’s off the bar! They’ve moved her!”
The others looked and saw the _Beacon_ drawing away from the island.
She was headed toward it when she ran on the bar of sand beneath the
waves.
Then, as they still gazed, they saw the ship slowly swing about and
head off and around the other way, going directly from the island.
Faster and faster she began to move.
“Why! Why!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown. “They’re going away from us!
They’re leaving us behind!”