"Oh! how beautiful!" exclaimed William, at last; "I'm sure mamma would
like to live here. I thought the other side of the island very pretty,
but it's nothing compared to this."
"It is very beautiful," replied Ready, thoughtfully.
A more lovely scene could scarcely be imagined. The cocoa-nut grove
terminated about a quarter of a mile from the beach, very abruptly, for
there was a rapid descent for about thirty feet from where they stood
to the land below, on which was a mixture of little grass knolls and
brushwood, to about fifty yards from the water's edge, where it was met
with dazzling white sand, occasionally divided by narrow ridges of rock
which ran inland. The water was a deep blue, except where it was broken
into white foam on the reefs, which extended for miles from the beach,
and the rocks of which now and then showed themselves above water. On
the rocks were perched crowds of gannets and men-of-war birds, while
others wheeled in the air, every now and then darting down into the
blue sea, and bringing up in their bills a fish out of the shoals which
rippled the water, or bounded clear of it in their gambols. The form of
the coast was that of a horse-shoe bay - two points of land covered
with shrubs extending far out on each side. The line of the horizon,
far out at sea, was clear and unbroken.
Ready remained for some time without speaking; he scanned the horizon
right and left, and then he turned his eyes along the land. At last
William said:
"What are you thinking of, Ready?"
"Why, I am thinking that we must look for water as fast as we can."
"But why are you so anxious?"
"Because I can see no island to leeward of us as I expected, and
therefore there is less chance of getting off this island; and this
bay, although very beautiful, is full of reefs, and I see no inlet,
which makes it awkward for many reasons. But we cannot judge at first
sight. Let us now sit down and take our dinner, and after that we will
explore a little."
Ready cut two wide marks in the stems of the cocoa-nut trees, and then
descended with William to the low ground, where they sat down to eat
their dinner. As soon as their meal was finished they first walked down
to the water's edge, and Ready turned his eyes inland to see if he
could discover any little ravine or hollow which might be likely to
contain fresh water. "There are one or two places there," observed
Ready, pointing to them with his finger, "where the water has run down
in the rainy season: we must examine them carefully, but not now. I
want to find out whether there is any means of getting our little boat
through this reef of rocks, or otherwise we shall have very hard work
(if we change our abode to this spot) to bring all our stores through
that wood; so we will pass the rest of this day in examining the coast,
and to-morrow we will try for fresh water."
"Look at the dogs, Ready, they are drinking the sea-water, poor
things!"
"They won't drink much of that, I expect; you see they don't like it
already."
"How beautiful the corals are - look here, they grow like little trees
under the water, - and look here, here is really a flower in bloom
growing on that rock just below the water."
"Put your finger to it, Master William," said Ready.
William did so, and the flower, as he called it, immediately shut up.
"Why, it's flesh, and alive!"
"Yes, it is; I have often seen them before: they call them sea-anemones
- they are animals; but I don't know whether they are shell-fish or
not. Now, let us walk out to the end of this point of land, and see if
we can discover any opening in the reef. The sun is going down, and we
shall not have more than an hour's daylight, and then we must look out
for a place to sleep in."
"But what is that?" cried William, pointing to the sand - "that round
dark thing?"
"That's what I'm very glad to see, William: it's a turtle. They come up
about this time in the evening to drop their eggs, and then they bury
them in the sand."
"Can't we catch them?"
"Yes, we can catch them if we go about it quietly; but you must take
care not to go behind them, or they will throw such a shower of sand
upon you, with their hind flappers or fins, that they would blind you
and escape at the same time. The way to catch them is to get at their
heads and turn them over on their backs by one of the fore-fins, and
then they cannot turn back again."
"Let us go and catch that one."
"I should think it very foolish to do so, as we could not take it away,
and it would die to-morrow from the heat of the sun."
"I did not think of that, Ready; if we come to live here, I suppose we
shall catch them whenever we want them."
"No, we shall not, for they only come on shore in the breeding-season;
but we will make a turtle pond somewhere which they cannot get out of,
but which the sea flows into; and then when we catch them we will put
them into it, and have them ready for use as we require them."
"That will be a very good plan," replied William.
They now continued their walk, and, forcing their way through the
brushwood which grew thick upon the point of land, soon arrived at the
end of it.
"What is that out there?" said William, pointing to the right of where
they stood.
"That is another island, which I am very glad to see even in that
direction, although it will not be so easy to gain it, if we are
obliged to leave this for want of water. It is a much larger island
than this, at all events," continued Ready, scanning the length of the
horizon, along which he could see the tops of the trees. - "Well, we
have done very well for our first day, so we will go and look for a
place to lie down and pass the night."
They returned to the high ground where the cocoa-nut grove ended, and
collecting together several branches and piles of leaves, made a good
soft bed under the trees.
"And now we'll go to bed. Look, William, at the long shadow of the
trees the sun has nearly set."
"Shall I give the dogs some water now, Ready? See, poor Remus is
licking the sides of the bottles."
"No, do not give them any: it appears to be cruel, but I want the
intelligence of the poor animals to-morrow, and the want of water will
make them very keen, and we shall turn it to good account. So now,
William, we must not forget to return thanks to a merciful God, and to
beg his care over us for this night. We little know what the day may
bring forth. Good-night!"