Smugglers' Island and the devil fires of San Moros

by Clarissa A. Kneeland

Thus, between the bananas and the rabbits, Marian managed to keep her family clothed.

They took many trips to the mainland. There were several esteros that led far inland, and they explored them all. They became accustomed to going without water. They always had some with them, but it was such a bother to take a lot of bottles along every time they stirred out from home that they trained themselves not to want a drink every little while. They would take a big drink before they left the Island in the morning, and often no one would take another till noon. Also they learned to go without much food in the middle of the day and to eat that little raw.

Children are children the world over, I fancy. These had their little games and plays, which Marian was always ready to foster. The little girls and Davie used to put their dolls to bed every night, tucking them in as carefully as they did themselves. Also the dolls were usually carried with them, if they were making a trip of any great length, lest they should get lonesome and frightened if left too long alone. They traveled in a little fiber bag Jennie crocheted, and were generally hung up on the mast where they were well out of the way of the water, and if they went inland Jennie would wear the bag hung about her neck.

When they went in swimming, the children would play they were fishes and other water creatures and would imitate the different characteristics as well as they could. Davie’s favorite characterization was that of the crab. He would run sideways on all fours and pinch the other children’s toes. He played this so strenuously that he often made himself something of a nuisance and had to be tactfully guided into other channels of thought.

They were all perfectly delighted when Marian taught them how to stay under water as long as they pleased. On one of their inland trips they had found some large hollow weed-stalks. They played with them at first by simply blowing bubbles in the water and drawing up mouthfuls of water which they blew out at each other, but when Marian showed them that by holding one of the hollow tubes in the mouth one could stay under water as long as he remembered to breathe always through the mouth and to keep the top of the tube above the water, they invented all kinds of games that the new trick could be used in.

Delbert could do it best. He declared he could lie under the water and go to sleep, it was so easy. Marian did not advise him to try it. “You might get to snoring and drown before you could wake up,” she told him.

Their novel clothing gave new impetus to their Indian play. There was some discussion at first as to which tribe they belonged to. They could not seem to recognize themselves as belonging to any they had yet heard of and they finally invented a new one and called themselves the tribe of the Hawks. Marian had been calling Delbert that for some time, he was always so keenly on the alert for anything to eat. And when he perched himself on a rock and fished patiently,—that was before they lost the hook,—he reminded her of nothing so much as a fish hawk ready to swoop.

They spent more and more time on the trips inland. They began to skirt the hills a little. Davie was so big now that he did not seem to tire out any quicker than Jennie, and the little feet were all so tough that hard roads did not daunt them.

They saw no more cat-tracks, but Marian never forgot that one, and because of it kept the tribe away from the high rocky hills and the thick growth.

The country beyond the largest estero became familiar to them for several miles. There was a certain lagoon there that they liked to go to in the rainy season,—and there was no lagoon there except in the rainy season. There were beautiful blue pond-lilies in it. Marian dug up some roots and planted them on the home Island.