"We'll have to get heaps of heather and bracken in for beds again," said Jill, "just as we did for our tent. Won't it be a nice little house! We must bring the little table here, and the stool—and all the cups and things. It will make it seem like home."
The children had quite forgotten how serious their adventure was. It was such fun to work like this and get ready a little house. Mary even began to wonder if there was anything she could use as a curtain for the window!
Their lunch was potatoes and chocolate, with plenty of cold spring water Tom could have eaten three times as much but he had to be content with five large potatoes and a whole bar of chocolate.
"We'll have fish for to-night," promised Andy. "The water round about this island is just thick with fish. Well always have plenty to eat so long as we don't get tired of fish! We'll hunt for shell-fish too."
After their dinner the children separated. The girls were to go to the nearest patches of heather and bracken and bring in armfuls for beds. The boys were to make journeys to and from the tent, and bring in all their belongings.
"When the tides down tonight I'll get the tin of oil out of the locker of the boat," said Andy. "That won't have been spoilt by the sea-water because it's got a tight-fitting lid. We can cook over the stove then, as well as over a fire, if we want to."
The children were very busy that afternoon. Mary and Jill got enough heather and bracken to make two teds, one at each side of the shack. They piled the tough bracken on the floor first, and then the softer heather on top. Then they spread each bed with a rug. and put another rug, neatly folded up, to be used as a blanket at night.
"The beds can be couches to sit on in the daytime," said Mary, quite pleased with the look of them. "we'll have to add more heather day by day, I expect, Jill, because we shall flatten the beds very much with our weight. But we can easily see to that."
The boys brought in the crockery—cups, saucers and plates—thick, common ones used by the fishermen who sailed in Andy's father's boat with him. They were just right for the shack—but where were they to be put?
"We really can't keep them on the floor," said Mary. They'll get broken. I wish we had a shelf to put things on. It would give us much more room if only we could get these odd things out of the way."