ON THE ISLAND
The two children had been around boats enough to know more about water
craft than most boys and girls of their age. Bunny's father, owning a
boat and fish dock, where Sue and her brother often played, had taught
the youngsters something about how boats are steered. A raft, as Bunny
knew, was the simplest and safest form of a boat. He also knew that a
raft was only a lot of logs and boards fastened together. On it one
could float or push down a little river or across a pond.
"This is nice smooth water, isn't it?" asked Sue, as she looked out over
Squaw River which, as has been said, was a sluggish stream. It hardly
seemed to flow at all.
"Yes, it's nice here," Bunny said. "We won't go very fast. There aren't
any waves like in the ocean or our bay."
Bunny and Sue had often been out with their father, Uncle Tad, or Bunker
Blue on Sandport Bay at home, and sometimes on the real ocean when it
was not too rough. So Squaw River seemed very small and smooth to them.
It was harder work than Bunny had thought it would be to make the raft,
but he had right at hand everything he needed, from boards and small
logs to hammer and nails. The hammer and nails he had brought with him.
Putting the cloth bag of lunch in a safe place on the bank, Bunny began
work.
He laid some logs down on the sandy shore as close to the water as he
could. On top of the logs he placed boards, and these he nailed on, so
they would not float away.
On top of the first layer of boards he placed others, crossing them to
and fro, as he had once seen his father and Uncle Tad making a float
near the dock. The float was like a raft, only it was anchored in the
bay and used for getting in and out of the fishing boats.
"How far you going to sail on the raft, Bunny?" asked Sue, as she helped
her brother lay in place the boards to be nailed. Sue did none of the
nailing. She tried it once, but she hit her fingers and thumb instead of
the nail, and she threw the hammer aside.
"Oh, we'll sail down until we get hungry, and then we'll go on an island
like the pirates and eat our lunch," Bunny answered.
By "sail" he meant pushing the raft along with a pole he had brought
from the orange grove.
"S'posin' there isn't any island?" asked Sue.
"Oh, I guess there is one," Bunny said, looking at the raft to see if it
needed any more boards to make it strong enough. "Anyhow, if we don't
find an island we can go on shore. Course an island would be more fun,
but we can have a good time anyhow."
"To be sure we can!" laughed Sue. "We've had lots of fun since we've
come down South, haven't we, Bunny?"
"Yes!" answered the little boy. He was too busy to talk much, for he was
thinking of the best plan to get his raft into the water. For the boards
and logs, now nailed together, must be shoved from the shore into the
river, else there could be no wonderful voyage down-stream to the
"pirate island."
Bunny had often seen his father move heavy boards from the shore into
the waters of the bay by means of rollers. Rollers are round pieces of
wood, like the rolling pin in mother's kitchen. Rollers placed under a
boat make it easy to launch into the water. If you have ever seen men
moving a house from one street to another you may have noticed that they
used rollers. Or they may have slid the house along on big beams which
were made slippery with grease or soap.
"I'll roll my raft into the water," said Bunny.
"And I'll help!" offered Sue, for she knew what rolling a boat into the
water meant--she had often seen her father do it.
Getting the raft into Squaw River was not quite as hard as putting the
craft together. By using a long pole Bunny managed to raise up one edge
of his nailed-together boards and logs, and under it Sue slipped a round
roller, which was a short piece of round tree trunk. Then when Bunny
raised up the other side of the raft his sister slipped under it
another roller.
"Now she'll slide!" cried Bunny, as he had often heard his father or
Bunker Blue say.
With his long pole Bunny now pried up on the rear of the raft. At first
it did not move, and Bunny began to be afraid he and Sue would not,
after all, have a voyage down the river.
But at last it slid a little bit, and then more and more, until finally
it was rolling along quite rapidly. As the bank sloped down to the river
like a little hill, Bunny hardly had to push or pry at all now, and a
minute later the raft was floating in the water.
It would have floated away, but Bunny had tied a rope to one edge, and
the other end of the rope he had fastened to a tree stump on shore, so
the raft was "made fast," as a sailor would say. Bunny had been around
his father's dock enough to know that when one puts a boat into the
water one must make it fast or it will be lost.
"Isn't our raft nice, Bunny?" exclaimed Sue, as she saw it floating in
the water.
"Yes," Bunny agreed, "we'll have lots of fun! Wait till I get the lunch
and we'll start."
"I want a pole so I can help push," said Sue.
"All right. You bring the bag of lunch and I'll get you a pole,"
promised Bunny.
Soon the two children were on the raft, each one thrusting with a pole
on the bottom of the river, which was not very deep, and so shoving
themselves along. In the middle of the raft was the bag of lunch--the
dried bread, pieces of cake and a very much flattened piece of pie that
Bunny had found on the pantry shelf.
"Oh, this is lots of fun!" exclaimed Sue, as they floated along.
"Yep!" agreed Bunny, shoving hard on his pole. "I'm glad we came to
Florida."
It was very pleasant on this part of Squaw River, where it ran through
the orange groves of Mr. Halliday. On either side were growing palms and
other trees, some of which met overhead in a green arch, making it very
shady. Only for this the sun would have been very warm--quite different
from the sun in Bellemere, where there was now snow on the ground.
"Our snow man wouldn't last very long down here, would he, Bunny?" asked
Sue, as she began to feel quite warm from poling the raft.
"Nope! A snow house wouldn't either," Bunny answered. "But I like it
here."
"So do I," said Sue. "There's lots of birds, too."
There were. Bunny and Sue could hear them flitting through the tree
branches overhead, and could listen to their songs. Sometimes birds with
brilliant feathers flashed into view, disappearing in the thick, leafy
trees on either side of the river.
Bunny had made his raft rather strong and heavy, so that it floated well
up out of the water. In fact, the top part was quite dry, and if the
children had worn shoes and stockings they would have been perfectly
safe. But Bunny knew that, sooner or later, water generally washes over
the top of a raft, for one side or the other is likely to tip down. So
he and Sue were barefooted. They had left their shoes and stockings on
shore at the spot where they had launched the raft. It did not matter
now whether the water washed over the top of their craft or not.
On and on, down the river floated the two children. For a time nothing
happened. It was as calm and peaceful as even Mrs. Brown could have
wished. But Bunny and Sue wanted something to happen, and pretty soon
Bunny said:
"Let's eat!"
"Oh, yes, let's!" agreed Sue, always willing to do what Bunny did.
"We'll make believe it's dinner time," Bunny went on, "and we'll let the
raft float."
There was enough current in the river to carry the raft gently down, and
Bunny and Sue were in no hurry.
Bunny had thought the time would come when he and his sister might want
to sit down on their raft, and to keep them up out of the water he had
put two empty orange crates on the craft. These made fine seats, and on
one the lunch bag had been placed.
Laying their pushing poles down on top of the raft, in the middle,
Bunny and Sue sat down on the orange crates and began to eat what they
had brought with them. It did not matter that the cake and the bread
were stale. To the children the food tasted as good as anything they had
ever eaten at a party.
As they ate and floated along, the raft swung this way and that,
sometimes turning completely around, so, at times, the children were
going backward down the stream. It was at one of these times that they
felt a sudden bump and jar--almost like the time when the engine had
hitched itself to the freight car.
"Oh!" cried Sue. "What's that?"
Bunny turned, gave one look and cried:
"Hurray! We're here!"
"Where?" Sue asked.
"On the pirate island! Come on! All ashore!"