“And Uncle Rufus and Linda,” said Dot, accepting the idea that they might never return to civilization.
They really had so much to do and so much fun doing it that it was little wonder if Tess and Dot considered very lightly the semi-privations the party suffered. What were proper beds, and shelter, and restaurant-cooked food, compared with the jolly makeshifts that were made necessary by their present condition?
The camp was established back from the small but sheltered inlet in which the Isobel was finally anchored. The anchorage was so deep that a fallen palm log made a gangplank from the rocky shore to the deck of the motor-boat. By means of this, everything was brought ashore that they thought would be needful.
The boys brought tarpaulins and pieces of sailcloth, and between four palm-stems in the middle of the cocoanut grove some rods back from the water, they proceeded to set up a shelter for the girls to use as a bedroom. Of course, the living and cooking in general would be done in the open, and there were plenty of blankets for the boys and Mr. Howbridge when they lay down to sleep on the sand.
The grove showed some marks of the storm that had swept this part of the Caribbean so savagely the day before. Although the cocoanuts were in a green state, some had been wrenched from the tops of the trees and flung about. The soft meat of these nuts was already good to eat; and there were bananas and mangoes—the latter refreshing, but not much to the children’s taste at first.
Neale poked out great lobsters in the crannies of the rocks. There were crabs to be caught too. Mussels, razor-shell clams and maninoses added to the edible supplies. Besides these, the waters about the island were crowded with fish of various kinds. There was little need of the party going hungry, although Dot did ask rather earnestly for a piece of bread and butter.
Besides laying up such stores of provisions as they might need for the next few meals, the party, even Dot and Tess, walked clear around the island, following the edge of the sea. It was a long walk, but they took it in the cool of the day and the little folks were not too greatly wearied by the walk.
They were all, too, delighted with what they saw. There were in some places great coral rocks heaped up by the surf, and the girls had never imagined that there could be so many varieties of coral. Great, smooth, mother-of-pearl-lipped shells were likewise gathered by the children.
There were ill-smelling masses of half-animal, half-vegetable matter to which the Corner House girls were inclined to give a wide berth. These, too, had evidently been cast up on shore by the recent storm. Luke poked at them, and then became importantly scornful.
“You use these probably every time you take a bath in your tub at home,” he announced. “And because you see them in their natural state you scoff at them.”