As the sun had bathed the golden cave when our castaways went to sleep,
so it flooded their simple dwelling when they awoke.
"Then," exclaims the intelligent reader, "the sun must have risen in the
west!"
By no means, good reader. Whatever man in his wisdom, or weakness, may
do or say, the great luminaries of day and night hold on the even tenor
of their way unchanged. But youth is a wonderful compound of strength,
hope, vitality, carelessness, and free-and-easy oblivion, and, in the
unconscious exercise of the last capacity, Pauline and her brothers had
slept as they lay down, without the slightest motion, all through that
night, all through the gorgeous sunrise of the following morning, all
through the fervid noontide and the declining day, until the setting sun
again turned their resting-place into a cave of gold.
The effect upon their eyelids was such that they winked, and awoke with
a mighty yawn. We speak advisedly. There were not three separate
awakenings and three distinct yawns; no, the rousing of one caused the
rousing of the others in succession so rapidly that the yawns,
commencing with Pauline's treble, were prolonged, through Otto's tenor
down to Dominick's bass, in one stupendous monotone or slide, which the
last yawner terminated in a groan of contentment. Nature, during the
past few days, had been doubly defrauded, and she, having now partially
repaid herself, allowed her captives to go free with restored vigour.
There was, however, enough of the debt still unpaid to induce a desire
in the captives to return of their own accord to the prison-house of
Oblivion, but the desire was frustrated by Otto, who, sitting up
suddenly and blinking at the sun with owlish gravity, exclaimed--
"Well, I never! We've only slept five minutes!"
"The sun hasn't set _yet_!"
Dominick, replying with a powerful stretch and another yawn, also raised
himself on one elbow and gazed solemnly in front of him. A gleam of
intelligence suddenly crossed his countenance.
"Why, boy, when we went to sleep the sun was what you may call six feet
above the horizon; now it is twelve feet if it is an inch, so that if it
be still setting, it must be setting upwards--a phenomenon of which the
records of astronomical research make no mention."
"But it _is_ setting?" retorted Otto, with a puzzled look, "for I never
heard of your astronomical searchers saying that they'd ever seen the
sun rise in the same place where it sets."
"True, Otto, and the conclusion I am forced to is that we have slept
right on from sunset to sunset."
"So, then, we've lost a day," murmured Pauline, who in an attitude of
helpless repose, had been winking with a languid expression at the
luminous subject of discussion.
"Good morning, Pina," said Dominick.
"Good evening, you mean," interrupted his brother. "Well, good evening.
It matters little which; how have you slept?"
"Soundly--oh, so soundly that I don't want to move."
"Well, then, don't move; I'll rise and get you some breakfast."
"Supper," interposed Otto.
"Supper be it; it matters not.--But don't say we've lost a day, sister
mine. As regards time, indeed, we have; but in strength I feel that I
have gained a week or more."
"Does any one know," said Otto, gazing with a perplexed expression at
the sky--for he had lain back again with his hands under his head--"does
any one know what day it was when we landed?"
"Thursday, I think," said Dominick.
"Oh no," exclaimed Pauline; "surely it was Wednesday or Tuesday; but the
anxiety and confusion during the wreck, and our terrible sufferings
afterwards in the little boat, have quite confused my mind on that
point."
"Well, now, here's a pretty state of things," continued Otto, sleepily;
"we've lost one day, an' we don't agree about three others, and Dom says
he's gained a week! how are we ever to find out when Sunday comes, I
should like to know? There's a puzzler--a reg'lar--puzzl'--puz--"
A soft snore told that "tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," had
again taken the little fellow captive, and prolonged silence on the part
of the other two proved them to have gone into similar captivity.
Nature had not recovered her debt in full. She was in an exacting mood,
and held them fast during the whole of another night. Then she set them
finally free at sunrise on the following day, when the soft yellow light
streamed on surrounding land and sea, converting their sleeping-place
into a silver cave by contrast.
There was no languid or yawny awakening on this occasion. Dominick sat
up the instant his eyes opened, then sprang to his feet, and ran out of
the cave. He was followed immediately by Otto and Pauline, the former
declaring with emphasis that he felt himself to be a "new man."
"Yes, Richard's himself again," said Dominick, as he stretched himself
with the energy of one who rejoices in his strength. "Now, Pina, we've
got a busy day before us. We must find out what our islet contains in
the way of food first, for I am ravenously hungry, and then examine its
other resources. It is very beautiful. One glance suffices to tell us
that. And isn't it pleasant to think that it is all our own?"
"`The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof,'" said his sister,
softly.
The youth's gaiety changed into a deeper and nobler feeling. He looked
earnestly at Pauline for a few seconds.
"Right, Pina, right," he said. "To tell you the truth, I was
half-ashamed of my feelings that time when I broke into involuntary
prayer and thanksgiving. I'm ashamed now of having been ashamed. Come,
sister, you shall read the Word of God from memory, and I will pray
every morning and evening as long as we shall dwell here together."
That day they wandered about their islet with more of gaiety and
light-heartedness than they would have experienced had they neglected,
first, to give honour to God, who not only gives us all things richly to
enjoy, but also the very capacity for enjoyment.
But no joy of earth is unmingled. The exploration did not result in
unmitigated satisfaction, as we shall see.
Their first great object, of course, was breakfast.
"I can't ask you what you'll have, Pina. Our only dish, at least this
morning," said Dominick, glancing upwards, "is--"
"Cocoa-nuts," put in Otto.
Otto was rather fond of "putting in" his word, or, as Dominick expressed
it, "his oar." He was somewhat pert by nature, and not at that time
greatly modified by art.
"Just so, lad," returned his brother; "and as you have a considerable
spice of the monkey in you, be good enough to climb up one of these
palms, and send down a few nuts."
To do Otto justice, he was quite as obliging as he was pert; but when he
stood at the foot of the tall palm-tree and looked up at its thick stem,
he hesitated.
"D'you know, Dom," he said, "it seems to me rather easier to talk about
than to do?"
"You are not the first who has found that out," returned his brother,
with a laugh. "Now, don't you know how the South Sea islanders get up
the palm-trees?"
"No; never heard how."
"Why, I thought your great authority Robinson Crusoe had told you that."
"Don't think he ever referred to it. Friday may have known how, but if
he did, he kept his knowledge to himself."
"I wish you two would discuss the literature of that subject some other
time," said Pauline. "I'm almost sinking for want of food. Do be
quick, please."
Thus urged, Dominick at once took off his neckcloth and showed his
brother how, by tying his feet together with it at a sufficient distance
apart, so as to permit of getting a foot on each side of the tree, the
kerchief would catch on the rough bark, and so form a purchase by which
he could force himself up step by step, as it were, while grasping the
stem with arms and knees.
Otto was an apt scholar in most things, especially in those that
required activity of body. He soon climbed the tree, and plucked and
threw down half a dozen cocoa-nuts. But when these had been procured,
there still remained a difficulty, for the tough outer husk of the nuts,
nearly two inches thick, could not easily be cut through with a
clasp-knife so as to reach that kernel, or nut, which is ordinarily
presented to English eyes in fruit-shops.
"We have no axe, so must adopt the only remaining method," said
Dominick.
Laying a nut on a flat rock, he seized a stone about twice the size of
his own head, and, heaving it aloft, brought it down with all his force
on the nut, which was considerably crushed and broken by the blow. With
perseverance and the vigorous use of a clasp-knife he at last reached
the interior. Thereafter, on cocoa-nut meat and cocoa-nut milk, with a
draught from a pool in the thicket they partook of their first breakfast
on the reef.
"Now, our first duty is to bury the skeleton," said Dominick, when the
meal was concluded; "our next to examine the land; and our last to visit
the wreck. I think we shall be able to do all this in one day."
Like many, perhaps we may say most, of man's estimates, Dominick's
calculation was short of the mark, for the reef turned out to be
considerably larger than they had at first supposed. It must be
remembered that they had, up to that time, seen it only from the low
level of the sea, and from that point of view it appeared to be a mere
sandbank with a slight elevation in the centre, which was clothed with
vegetation. But when the highest point of this elevation was gained,
they discovered that it had hidden from their view not only a
considerable stretch of low land which lay behind, but an extensive
continuation of the lagoon, or salt-water lake, in which lay a multitude
of smaller islets of varying shapes, some mere banks of sand, others
with patches of vegetation in their centres, and a few with several
cocoa-nut palms on them, the nucleus, probably, of future palm groves.
A large island formed the background to this lovely picture, and the
irregular coral reef guarded the whole from the violence of the ocean.
In some places this reef rose to a considerable height above the
sea-level. In others, it was so little above it that each falling
breaker almost buried it in foam; but everywhere it was a sufficient
protection to the lagoon, which lay calm and placid within, encircled by
its snowy fringe,--the result of the watery war outside. In one spot
there was a deep entrance into this beautiful haven of peace, and that
chanced to be close to the golden cave, and was about fifty yards wide.
At the extremity of the reef, on the other side of this opening, lay
another elevated spot, similar to their own, though smaller, and with
only a few palms in the centre of it. From the sea this eminence had
appeared to be a continuation of the other, and it was only when they
landed that the Rigondas discovered the separation caused by the channel
leading into the lagoon.
"Fairyland!" exclaimed Pauline, who could scarcely contain herself with
delight at the marvellous scene of beauty that had so unexpectedly burst
upon their view.
"Rather a noisy and bustling fairyland too," said Otto, referring to the
numerous sea-birds that inquisitively came to look at them, as well as
to the other waterfowl that went about from isle to isle on whistling
wings.
The boy spoke jestingly, but it was clear from his heaving chest,
partially-open mouth, and glittering eyes, that his little heart was
stirred to an unwonted depth of emotion.
"Alas! that we have lost our boat," exclaimed Dominick.
To this Otto replied by expressing an earnest wish that he were able to
swim as well as a South Sea islander, for in that case he would launch
forth and spend the remainder of that day in visiting all the islands.
"Yes; and wouldn't it be charming," responded his brother, "to pay your
aquatic visits in such pleasant company as that?"
He pointed to an object, which was visible at no great distance, moving
about on the surface of the glassy sea with great activity.
"What creature is that?" asked Pauline.
"It is not a creature, Pina, only part of a creature."
"You don't mean to say it's a shark!" cried Otto, with a frown.
"Indeed it is--the back-fin of one at least--and he must have heard you,
for he seems impatient to join you in your little trip to the islands."
"I'll put it off to some future day, Dom. But isn't it a pity that such
pretty places should be spoiled by such greedy and cruel monsters?"
"And yet they _must_ have been made for some good purpose," suggested
Pauline.
"I rather suspect," said Dominick, "that if game and fish only knew who
shoot and catch them, and afterwards eat them, they might be inclined to
call man greedy and cruel."
"But we can't help that Dom. We must live, you know."
"So says or thinks the shark, no doubt, when he swallows a man."
While the abstruse question, to which the shark had thus given rise, was
being further discussed, the explorers returned to the thicket, where
they buried the skeleton beside the other graves. A close search was
then made for any object that might identify the unfortunates or afford
some clue to their history, but nothing of the sort was found.
"Strange," muttered Dominick, on leaving the spot after completing their
task. "One would have expected that, with a wrecked ship to fall back
upon, they would have left behind them evidences of some sort--
implements, or books, or empty beef-casks,--but there is literally
nothing."
"Perhaps," suggested Pauline, "the men did not belong to this wreck.
They may have landed as we have done out of a small boat, and the vessel
we now see may have been driven here after they were dead."
"True, Pina, it may have been so. However, the matter must remain a
mystery for the present. Meanwhile we will go and explore the low land
behind our reef."
"Isn't it strange, Dom, that we should become landed proprietors in this
fashion?" remarked Otto, as they walked along.
"And that, too," added Pauline, "at a time when our hopes were lowest
and our case most desperate."
"'Tis a magnificent estate," said Dominick, "of which we will constitute
Pina the Queen, myself the Prime Minister, and Otto the army."
To this Otto objected that, as it was the business of an army to defend
the people and keep them in order, there was no use for an army, seeing
that there were no people; but Dominick replied that a queen and prime
minister formed part of a people, and that an army was required to
defend _them_.
"To keep them in order, you should say," retorted Otto, "for that will
clearly be my chief duty if I accept the situation. Well, I've no
objection, on the whole, to be an army; but, please, remember that in
time of peace an army is expected to do no laborious work, and that at
all times it is clothed and fed by the State. Now, Queen Pina the
First, what would your Majesty wish the army to do?"
"Go forth and subdue the land," replied Pina the First, promptly, with
quite a regal sweep of her hand towards the low ground and the lagoon
beyond.
"Will your Majesty deign to instruct me how I am to begin?"
The Queen hesitated. She was rather puzzled, as rulers sometimes are
when required to tackle details.
"May it please your Majesty," said Dominick, coming to the rescue like a
true premier, "it is the chief duty of a prime minister to advise his
sovereign. If it be your pleasure, I would recommend that the army
should be sent down into yonder clump of reeds to ascertain what revenue
is to be derived from the inhabitants thereof in the shape of wildfowl,
eggs, etcetera, while I visit the shore of the lagoon to ascertain the
prospects of supply, in the form of shellfish, from that quarter.
Meanwhile, I would further advise your Majesty to sit down on this coral
throne, and enjoy the contemplation of your kingdom till we return."
With a dignified bow and a little laugh Queen Pina assented, and the
Prime Minister went off to the shore, while the army defiled towards the
marsh.
Left alone, Pina the First soon forgot her royal condition in
contemplation of the lovely prospect before her. As she gazed over the
sand, and across the lagoon, and out on the gleaming sea, her thoughts
assumed the wings of the morning and flew away over the mighty ocean to
old England. Sadness filled her heart, and tears her eyes, as she
thought of a mild little mother who had, since the departure of her
three children, been reduced for companionship to a huge household cat,
and who would ere long be wondering why letters were so long of coming
from the dear ones who had left her.
Pauline had a vivid imagination and great power of mental abstraction.
She summoned up the image of the little mother so successfully that she
felt as if she actually saw her knitting her socks, sadly, with her head
on one side. She even heard her address the cat (she was accustomed to
address the cat when alone), and express a hope that in the course of a
month or six weeks more she might expect to have news of the absent
ones. And Pauline almost saw the household cat, which occupied its
usual place on the table at the old lady's elbow, blink its eyes with
sympathy--or indifference, she could not be quite sure which. Then
Pauline's wayward thoughts took a sudden flight to the island of Java,
in the China seas, where she beheld a bald little old gentleman--a
merchant and a shipowner--who was also her father, and who sat reading a
newspaper in his office, and was wondering why his good ship _Flying
Fish_--which was bringing his children to him besides a quantity of
other goods--did not make its appearance, and she plainly saw the look
of disappointment as he threw the paper down, exclaiming, "Odd, very
odd, but she _must_ turn up soon."
Pauline saw nothing more after that for some time, because her eyes were
blinded with tears.
Then Queen Pina cheered up again, for she thought that surely a ship
would soon pass the island and take them off. As this last thought
became more definite (for Pina was very young and hopeful) her eyes
dried and permitted her to observe her kingdom more clearly.
The Prime Minister, she observed, was still busy on the shore, and, from
his frequently stooping to pick up something, she argued that the
affairs of State in that quarter were prospering.
Presently, from the midst of a mass of reeds not far off, there arose a
shout, easily recognisable as that of the army, which was followed by
cries of a stupendous, yet extremely familiar, kind. Pauline started up
in considerable haste, and a moment later beheld the chief authors of
the noise burst from the clump of reeds in the form of a large sow and a
troop of little pigs.
They were evidently in a state of wild alarm, for, besides squealing
with a degree of intensity possible only to pigs, they ran in such
furious haste that they stumbled over sticks and stones in reckless
confusion, scrambling to their feet again in such a hurry as to ensure
repeated falls, and, generally, twirling themselves and their tails in a
manner that was consistent with nothing short of raving madness.
Little wonder that those creatures acted thus, for, close on their
heels, gasping and glaring, the army burst forth and fell on them--
literally fell on one of them, for Otto in his anxiety to catch the
hindmost pig, a remarkably small but active animal, tripped over a root
just as he was about to lay hold of its little tail, and fell on the top
of it with fearful violence. The mechanical pressure, combining with
the creature's spiritual efforts, produced a sudden yell that threw the
cries of its companions quite into the shade. It might have sufficed to
blow Otto into the air. Indeed, it seemed as if some such result
actually followed, for, after turning a complete somersault, the boy was
on his feet again as if by magic; but so also was the little pig, which,
being thus forcibly separated from its family, turned aside and made for
the main thicket. To cut off its retreat, the army made a sudden flank
movement, headed the enemy, grasped it by the curly tail, and sought to
lift it into his arms, but the curly tail straightened out, and, being
exceedingly thin as well as taper, slipped from his hand. Need we say
that the little pig came to the ground with a remonstrative squeal? It
also rolled over. Otto, unable to check himself, flew past. The pig
rose, diverged, and resumed its headlong flight. Otto doubled, came
close up again, "stooped to conquer," and was on the point of coming off
victorious, when, with a final shriek of mingled rage and joy, the enemy
rushed through a hole under a prickly bush, while the discomfited army
plunged headlong into the same, and stuck fast.
Meanwhile the rest of the porcine family had found refuge in an almost
impenetrable part of the thicket.
"Pork, your Majesty," said Otto, on returning from the field of battle,
"may at all events be counted as one of the products of your dominions."
"Truly it would seem so," responded the Queen, with a laugh;
"nevertheless there does not appear to be much hope of its forming a
source of supply to the royal larder."
"Time will show," said Dominick, coming up at the moment; "and see, here
are several kinds of shellfish, which will form a pleasant addition to
our fare."
"Ay, and I saw eggs among the reeds," said Otto, "some of which--"
"Not pigs' eggs, surely?" interrupted Dominick.
"They may be so," retorted Otto; "the fact that English pigs don't lay
eggs, is no argument against South Sea pigs doing so, if they choose.
But, as I was about to say, your Majesty, when the Premier interrupted
me--some of these eggs I gathered, and would have presented them as an
offering from the army, if I had not fallen and crushed them beyond
repair."
In corroboration of what he said, Otto opened his coat pocket and
revealed in its depths a mass of yellow substance, and broken shells.
"Horrible!" exclaimed Pauline; "how will you ever get it cleaned?"
"By turning it inside out--thus, most gracious Queen."
He reversed the pocket as he spoke, allowing the yellow compound to drip
on the ground, and thereafter wiped it with grass.
"I wouldn't have minded this loss so much," he continued, "if I had not
lost that little pig. But I shall know him again when I see him, and
you may depend on it that he is destined ere long to be turned into pork
chops."
"Well, then, on the strength of that hope we will continue the survey of
our possessions," said Dominick, leading the party still further into
the low grounds.
For some time the trio wandered about without making any further
discoveries of importance until they came to a thicket, somewhat similar
to the one near which they had been cast on shore, but much smaller. On
entering it they were startled by a loud cackling noise, accompanied by
the whirring of wings.
"Sounds marvellously like domestic fowls," said Dominick, as he pushed
forward. And such it turned out to be, for, on reaching an open glade
in the thicket, they beheld a large flock of hens running on ahead of
them, with a splendid cock bringing up the rear, which turned
occasionally to cast an indignant look at the intruders.
"That accounts for your eggs, Otto," observed Pauline.
"Yes, and here are more of them," said the boy, pointing to a nest with
half a dozen eggs in it, which he immediately proceeded to gather.
"It is quite evident to me," remarked Dominick, as they continued to
advance, "that both the pigs and fowls must have been landed from the
wreck that lies on the shore, and that, after the death of the poor
fellows who escaped the sea, they went wild. Probably they have
multiplied, and we may find the land well stocked."
"I hope so. Perhaps we may find some more traces of the shipwrecked
crew," suggested Pauline.
Their expectations were not disappointed, for, on returning in the
evening from their tour of exploration, they came on a partially cleared
place in the thicket beside the golden cave, which had evidently been
used as a garden. In the midst of a mass of luxuriant undergrowth,
which almost smothered them, vegetables of various kinds were found
growing--among others the sweet potato.
Gathering some of these, Otto declared joyfully that he meant to have a
royal feast that night, but a difficulty which none of them had thought
of had to be faced and overcome before that feast could be enjoyed. It
was just as they arrived at the golden cave that this difficulty
presented itself to their minds.
"Dom," said Otto, with a solemn look, "how are we to make a fire?"
"By kindling it, of course."
"Yes, but, you stupid Premier, where are we to find a light?"
"To tell you the truth, my boy," returned Dominick, "I never thought of
that till this moment, and I can't very well see my way out of the
difficulty."
Pauline, to whom the brothers now looked, shook her head. Never before,
she said, had she occasion to trouble her brain about a light. When she
wanted one in England, all she had to do was to call for one, or strike
a match. What was to be done in their present circumstances she had not
the smallest conception.
"I'll tell you what," said Otto, after several suggestions had been made
and rejected, "this is how we'll do it. We will gather a lot of dry
grass and dead sticks and build them up into a pile with logs around it,
then Pina will sit down and gaze steadily at the heart of the pile for
some minutes with her great, brown, sparkling eyes she should be able to
kindle a flame in the heart of almost anything in five minutes--or, say
ten, at the outside, eh?"
"I should think," retorted the Queen, "that your fiery spirit or
flashing wit might accomplish the feat in a shorter time."
"It seems to me," remarked Dominick, who had been thinking too hard to
pay much regard to these pleasantries, "that if we live long here we
shall have to begin life over again--not our own lives, exactly, but the
world's life. We shall have to invent everything anew for ourselves;
discover new methods of performing old familiar work, and, generally,
exercise our ingenuity to the uttermost."
"That may be quite true, you philosophic Premier," returned Otto, "but
it does not light our fire, or roast that old hen which you brought down
with a stone so cleverly to-day. Come, now, let us exercise our
ingenuity a little more to the purpose, if possible."
"If we had only some tinder," said Dominick, "we could find flint, I
dare say, or some hard kind of stone from which fire could be struck
with the back of a clasp-knife, but I have seen nothing like tinder
to-day. I've heard that burnt rag makes capital tinder. If so, a bit
of Pina's dress might do, but we can't burn it without fire."
For a considerable time the trio sought to devise some means of
procuring fire, but without success, and they were at last fain to
content themselves with another cold supper of cocoa-nut and water,
after which, being rather tired, they went to rest as on the previous
night.