"Do, if you please, stop talking about snakes," said Mary, "I begin to see them wherever I look; suppose we return to our old encampment."
The boys gathered the remainder of the hay, called Nanny and the dogs, and reached the place which they had left, about five o'clock in the afternoon--having seen no signs of human habitation, and being exceedingly pleased with the appearance of their island; they made a slight alteration, however, in the place of their tent. Instead of continuing on the beach, they pitched it upon the bluff near the spring, and under the branches of a large mossy live oak. By the time the duties of the evening were concluded, they were ready for sleep. They committed themselves once more to the care of Him who has promised to be the Father of the fatherless, and laid down in peace, to rest during their third night upon the island.
CHAPTER XIII
DISAPPOINTMENT--THE LIVE OAK--UNLOADING--FISHING EXCURSION--HAROLD'S STILL HUNT--DISAGREEABLE MEANS TO AN AGREEABLE END
Before sunrise it was manifest that, without a change in the wind, the excursion proposed for that day was impossible; a strong breeze was blowing directly from the east, and brought a ceaseless succession of mimic billows down the river. Hoping, however, that the wind might change or moderate, they resolved to employ the interval in transferring all their articles of value from the boat, to their new home under the oak. And it was indeed fortunate, as they afterwards had occasion to know, that they attended to this duty so soon.
The live oak, under which their tent was pitched, was a magnificent tree. Its trunk was partially decayed from age, and the signs of similar decay in many of the larger limbs was no doubt the cause of its being spared in the universal search along this coast for ship timber; but it was so large, that the four youngsters by joining hands could barely reach around it. Ten feet above the root, it divided into three massive branches, which in turn were subdivided into long pendant boughs extending about sixty feet in every direction, and showing, at their ends, a strong disposition to sweep the ground. The height of the tree did not correspond to its breadth. It is characteristic of the live oak that, after attaining the moderate height of forty or fifty feet, its growth is directed laterally; the older trees often covering an area of more than double their height. Every limb was hung so plentifully with long gray moss, as to give it a strikingly venerable and patriarchal aspect, and Harold declared he could scarcely look at it without a disposition to take off his hat.
At noon Harold proposed to Robert that, the wind having ceased, they should spend the afternoon either in hunting or fishing. "If," said he, "Mary and Frank will allow us to leave them, I propose the first; if not, I propose the last, in which all can join."
"O, let us go together, by all means," said Mary. "I do not like to be left alone in this far off place; something may happen."
"Then let it be fishing," said Harold; "but what shall we use for bait?"
"The old bait that our grandfathers used--shrimp," replied Robert. "I observed on yesterday a multitude of them in a nook of the creek near the river. We can first catch some of these with our scoop net, and then try for whatever may bite. At any rate we can take the offals of the turkey, and fish for crabs."