THE WOODEN HOUSE
For a time it seemed that the small, black speck on the sea, toward
which Mrs. Brown pointed, might be the _Beacon_ returning. But soon
Will Gand remarked:
“That’s only a bird—a seagull, I guess. It’s soaring upward.”
And that is what the speck did—mount, showing that it must have been
a bird of some sort, though, at a distance, it looked like a ship on
the water.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Mrs. Brown, greatly disappointed.
“Never mind,” her husband said. “It will come some time to-day, I’m
sure.”
“I don’t care if the ship comes back or not,” declared Bunny Brown.
“I like it here now.”
“So do I,” echoed his sister Sue. “We’re going to have some fun,
aren’t we, Bunny?”
“Yes,” he answered. “We’re going in swimming, aren’t we, Daddy?”
Mr. Brown looked at his wife, smiled, and answered:
“As we haven’t any bathing suits for you two, I think that wading is
about all you can do. Won’t that be enough?”
Bunny and Sue decided that it would be, and perhaps they were
thinking of the “whale” about which their father had spoken in a
joking way.
A little later Mrs. Brown let the children take off their shoes and
stockings and splash about in the little cove where there was no surf
and where the boat had first landed.
Mr. Brown was busy helping the sailors make another hut of the big
palm leaves and grass which grew all about. Sam Trend had been in the
tropics before and had watched the natives make their huts, so he
knew how it was done and could tell the others.
In a short time a second hut was made near the first one, and this
was for Will and Sam to sleep in, since it was somewhat cramped
under the boat, though they did not find any fault.
“I wonder who made that first hut?” said Mrs. Brown to her husband,
coming up the beach and leaving Bunny and Sue paddling in the warm
water.
“Perhaps some natives lived here at one time,” said Mr. Brown.
“Though we haven’t seen any signs of their being here now, it’s true.
Or the hut may have been put up by some fishermen who stayed here for
a time. It’s a good thing they left it for us.”
“Yes, it is,” agreed his wife. “But don’t you think we had better
take a walk around this island to see how big it is and whether or
not there really is any one else besides ourselves on it?”
“That would be a good idea,” replied Mr. Brown. “And on the other
side of the island we may find a better place to stay than where we
are.”
It was planned to make the trip as soon as the grass hut was
finished, which would be in about a half hour. Mrs. Brown walked
about and picked up some of the cocoanuts which the wind of the
night before had blown down.
“Bunny and Sue will want some of the cocoanut milk to drink after
they finish playing in the water,” she said. She looked down the
beach at the two children splashing about.
Suddenly Sue gave a scream and dashed out of the water, her little
skirts held high.
“Oh, Bunny! Bunny!” she cried. “It’s a big crab and it’s going to
bite my toes!”
Bunny looked in the water where his sister pointed after she was safe
up on the dry beach.
“It wasn’t a crab at all,” he shouted. “It’s just a bunch of seaweed.
Come on back!”
“Well, anyhow, it felt like a crab nibbling my toes,” said Sue.
Slowly she went back to her brother who was still in the water, but
before Sue went in she looked carefully to make sure there were no
crabs. Bunny held up on a stick the bunch of seaweed which was what
really had tangled itself around Sue’s legs.
“Play in the water a little longer,” called Mrs. Brown to the
children. “Then we are going to walk around the island.”
“Oh, that’ll be fun!” cried Bunny. “Maybe we’ll find something. Come
on, Sue! I’ve waded enough.”
“So have I,” said his sister. “Do you think we’ll find any flowers,
Mother? I want to get some for Elizabeth.”
“Pooh! A doll doesn’t want any flowers!” cried Bunny. “She can’t
smell them!”
“My Elizabeth doll can smell!” retorted Sue.
“Huh! Make believe!” scoffed Bunny.
“Well, make believe is all right,” and Sue seemed well satisfied with
this.
They sat on the sands until their feet were dry enough to put on
their shoes and stockings. By this time Mr. Brown had finished
helping the two sailors build their hut and was ready to go with his
wife and children for a walk around the island.
“We’ll stay here near the boat,” said Will. “Can’t tell but what some
natives might be hiding in the bushes and would come out to take our
provisions.”
“Yes, that’s so,” agreed Mr. Brown. “But I hardly think any one is on
this island but ourselves.”
“Anyhow, if the ship comes back, some one ought to be here to signal
her,” said Sam.
“Oh, by all means!” said Mrs. Brown. “Wave to her, make a smoky fire,
do anything to let her know we are here, and don’t let her get away
without taking us off.”
Leaving the two sailors on watch, Mr. and Mrs. Brown started to walk
along the shore of the island and away from their little camp. Bunny
and Sue followed. The children were always glad to go walking with
their parents, for there were so many interesting things to see.
Cocoanut Island was a larger place than Mr. Brown had at first
thought. They went to the top of a little hill not far from the
beach, and from this height they could see that the place where they
had been left ashore was several miles long and about a mile wide.
“It will take us too long to walk around the island,” decided Mr.
Brown, as they came down the hill on the other side. “I think the
best plan will be to walk across the place and see what’s there.”
They did this. In about half an hour, for they did not walk fast,
they reached the other shore. There was a little cove here also, and
palm trees were waving in the wind.
“It isn’t any better, though,” said Mrs. Brown, “than the place where
we have our camp.”
“Yes, it is some better,” said Bunny Brown.
“Why?” asked his father.
“There’s a wooden house here. Look!”
To the surprise of his father and mother, who had not yet seen it,
Bunny pointed out a little house which stood in a clump of palm trees
some distance up the beach.
“It’s a wooden house,” went on Bunny. “And it would be nicer to live
in than the grass hut. Let’s go to the wooden house.”
Mr. and Mrs. Brown were very much surprised.