"I think I know," said Andy. "A year or two ago there came a great storm to these parts—so great that the people of our village fled inshore for miles, because the sea battered our houses and flooded our street. The storm must have been even worse on these unprotected islands here—and I should think the sea came into this hollow and battered the farm "to bits! Look at that chimney-stack there—all black and broken—that was struck by lightning, I should think."
The four children gazed down at the poor, hollow house and out-buildings. A little farm had once been there—a poor farm maybe, trying to grow a few potatoes in the rocky ground, to keep a few goats or cows, and to take from the sea enough fish to live on.
Now the folk had all gone, unable to battle with the great sea-storms that swept over their farm and destroyed their living.
"This explains the potatoes," said Jill. "That stretch of struggling potato plants must once have been a field."
"Let's go down into the hollow and have a look round," said Andy. So down into the dip they scrambled and wandered round the ruined buildings. Nothing had been left—all the furniture had been taken away, and even the gates and doors removed. Seashore weeds grew up from the floors of the farmhouse.
"A boy must have lived here," said Andy, picking up a broken wooden train from a patch of weeds.
"And here's a broken cup," said Jill, bending over what had once been a rubbish-heap.
They wandered about and at last came to a lirfle wooden shack where perhaps a cow or two had been kept in the winter. For some reason it had escaped being beaten in by the waves, and still stood upright, its one window broken, and its floor covered with a creeping weed.
Andy looked at it carefully. "This wouldn't be a bad place to make into a little house for ourselves," he said. "I was thinking we'd have to try and build one somehow—but this will do if we patch it up a bit. The tent won't be any use at all if the weather breaks up—and also it's going to be a great nuisance to keep taking it down from the signal tree each night for our tent and putting it back again in the mornings."
"Oh yes!" said Tom in delight. "Let's make this our house! That would be fun. Then we could leave the sail flapping for our signal all the time."