Ready laughed heartily. "It isn't the first time that they've made you jump, William."
"Why, it's our pigs, isn't it?" replied William.
"To be sure; they're in the yam patch, very busy feeding on them, I'll be bound."
Ready gave a shout, and a grunting and rushing were heard among the broad leaves, and, very soon, out rushed, instead of the six, about thirty pigs large and small; who, snorting and twisting their tails, galloped away at a great rate, until they gained the cocoa-nut grove.
"How wild they are, Ready!" said William.
"Yes, and they'll be wilder every day; but we must fence these yams from them, or we shall get none ourselves."
"But they'll beat down the fence before it grows up."
"We must pale it with cocoa-nut palings, and plant the prickly pears outside. Now, we'll go down to the sea-side."
As they neared the rocks, which were bare for about fifty yards from the water's edge, Ready said, "I can tell you now what those white patches on the rocks are, William; they are the places where the sea-birds come to every year to make their nests, and bring up their young. They always come to the same place every year, if they are not disturbed." They soon arrived at the spot, and found it white with the feathers of birds, mixed up with dirt.
"I see no nests, Ready, nor the remains of any."