Skinning the seal, and especially talking about it, had consumed so much time, that they determined to devote what little of the day was left to playing ball, especially as Charlie was very fond of the sport, and seldom had any one to play with him. They persuaded Ben to make one of their number. The island being mostly forest, they had not a very large place in which to play, as part of that cleared was sown with winter rye, which had grown so much on the new, strong land, as to make it difficult to find the ball. Thus they were limited to a piece of ground, not of great extent, near the shore. The boys had bat-sticks, but Ben preferred to use his fist, with which he sent the ball whizzing through the air with great velocity. At length becoming excited with the game, he struck it with such force as to send it over the White Bull into the water. He then went to his work in the woods, leaving the boys to get their ball as they could. Not many moments elapsed before they were on board the canoe in hot pursuit. Pulling in the direction they had seen it go, they soon discovered it bobbing up and down on a breaker in the cave on the White Bull. The cave was formed by two rocky points, and the bottom of it was, near the shore, a smooth granite ledge; but across its mouth were ragged and broken reefs, two fathoms beneath the surface at the lowest tides. Over these the great wave came in, filling the whole cave with a sheet of foam. In this breaker lay the ball; when the wave curled over and broke, it would come towards the shore and excite hope; then the recoil would carry it back again: thus it tantalized them.
“I’ll have that ball,” said Fred, who was a splendid swimmer, and as much at home in the water as a fish.
“It’s impossible,” said Charlie, “till there comes a northerly wind to blow the sea down, and a calm after it; then I’ve seen it so smooth you might go over it in a canoe, and I have been over it.”
“But I’ll swim in and get it.”
“Swim in! The moment you get into that undertow, it will hold you, and carry you back and forth just as it is doing that ball. Why, I’ve seen a mill-log get in there and stay three or four days; and so it will carry you back and forth till you are worn out, or perish. I had rather make you a dozen balls than you should go in there.”
“I tell you I will go in there and get that ball; I’ll have a try for it, at any rate.”
“No, you won’t,” said John; “for we are the strongest party, and we won’t let you, if we have to tie you, or lay you down and pile rocks on you.”
“I tell you I have a plan, if you would only help a fellow a little. Charlie gave me that ball, and it’s all the present I ever had in my life; for nobody ever cared enough about me to give me anything before.”
“Let’s hear your plan.”
“Can’t you row up to the surf in the canoe? I will put a line round me and go in; then, if it sucks me in, you can pull me out.”