“Mike, let’s tell Jack we’ll go,” said Peggy.
Mike scratched his curly black head. He felt old and worried. He wanted to go very badly - but would the two girls really be able to stand a wild life like that? No proper beds to sleep in - perhaps no proper food to eat - and suppose one of them was ill? Well, they would have to chance all that. They could always come back if things went too wrong.
“We’ll go,” said Mike. “We’ll plan it all with Jack. He knows better than we do.”
So that night, when they met Jack, the four of them laid their plans. Their faces were red with excitement, their eyes were shining. An adventure! A real proper adventure, almost like Robinson Crusoe - for they were going to live all by themselves on a lonely island.
“We must be careful in our plans,” said Jack. “We mustn’t forget a single thing, for we ought not to go back to get anything, you know, or we might be caught.”
“Could we go over to the island and just see what it’s like before we go to live there?” asked Nora. “I would so love to see it.”
“Yes,” said Jack. “We’ll go on Sunday.”
“How can we go?” asked Mike. “Do we have to swim?”
“No,” said Jack. “I have an old boat. It was one that had been left to fall to pieces, and I found it and patched it up. It still gets water in, but we can bale that out. I’ll take you over in that.”
The children could hardly wait for Sunday to come. They had to do a certain amount of work on Sundays, but usually they were allowed to take their dinner out and have a picnic afterwards.