“Now, sir,” said Ready, “what shall we do first—take some things on shore, or some of the children?”
“What do you say, Ready?”
“I think as the water is as smooth as glass, and we can land anywhere, you and I had better go first to reconnoitre,—it is not two hundred yards to the beach, and we shall lose but little time.”
“Very well, Ready, I will first run down and tell my wife.”
“And, in the meanwhile, I’ll put the sail into the boat, and one or two other things.”
Ready put the sail in, an axe, a musket, and some cord; then they both got into the boat and pulled on shore.
When they landed, they found that they could see nothing of the interior of the island, the cocoa-nut groves were so thick; but to their right they perceived, at about a quarter of a mile off, a small sandy cove, with brushwood growing in front of the cocoa-nut trees.
“That,” said Ready, pointing to it, “must be our location. Let us get into the boat again and pull to it.”
In a few minutes they arrived at the cove; the water was shallow, and as clear as crystal. Beneath the boat’s bottom they could see beautiful shells, and the fish darting about in every direction.
The sand extended about forty yards from the water, and then commenced the brushwood, which ran back about forty yards further, intermingled with single cocoa-nut trees, until it joined the cocoa-nut grove. They pulled the boat in and landed.