But we understood their manœuvres very well, and were quite prepared. We had long ceased to need the Cartref Pellenig entrance, letting everything down by the aperture above, where the rock and brushwood would tell no tales of our footsteps. We had made some more places of observation, and we went to rest that night feeling prepared for everything. It happened as we expected. The whole island seemed alive with pirates as the sun arose. We had taken care to leave their works of destruction as much like what they had left them as possible. They spent a whole week in diligently searching the island, yet were no restraint upon us whatever. We had our shower baths, and even our exercise up and down the rope ladders, peeping out upon them from the top, for we had smoothed the sides of the cliff so well, there was not a place for a cat to get up, and besides it seeming only to be bare rock and brushwood, they thought they saw all over it without deeming that anything could be hidden down in it.
We got rather rash, they got very vexed, we were delighted, they were disappointed. At last at the end of ten days, they began to unload the vessel. Now! thought we, "what is going to happen, surely they are not going to stay here." Our ill-timed hilarity received a sudden check, for our fears were confirmed, they unloaded the vessel completely, and after ballasting her with sand and shingle, they set sail, and departed. But alas! for us they left ten of their people behind them, who commenced to our horror and disgust building a house very near Cartref Pellenig, but so placed that they could look down the cliffs and over the sea. By this arrangement we had certainly one-half of the island entirely to ourselves, and as they were extremely busy, evidently trying to get their house completed ere the second rains came on, and as what time they had to spare they spent entirely in carousing and sleeping, we ran little danger of being discovered, though out for hours together. One precaution we took which was always to have a watcher on their movements, and never to leave the cavern, without settling where we were to be found in case of warning. Also they seemed quite to have made up their own minds that they were the sole inhabitants of the island. Little dreaming what a home she gave in her friendly bosom to the weak and helpless, and how many eyes watched their every movement.
We gathered the fruits of roots, enjoyed the turtle, collected eggs, and accustomed our hens to lay in the cavern, giving them a remote egress, through which nothing but fowls could get. We were not therefore in danger of starving, supposing they did take up their abode on the island with us. So we sat down on the carpet of contentment.
During the ensuing wet weather we saw nothing of our visitors, and we beguiled the time with writing stories and romances, and reciting them in the evening while we knitted, spun, and weaved. Part of the girls' lessons consisted in learning French Plays by heart, and Schillie and I as spectators saw more than poor Madame, who innocently left them to select their own lessons. Sometimes they would repeat the same lessons three days running, making grimaces at us to say nothing. Sometimes Gatty managed so to arrange it, that, during four or five long pages of dialogue, all she had to say was, "Et Tartuffe" "Le Pauvre-homme" two or three times, and then she received the good jeton necessary for such a long lesson.
Schillie.—"You will be hanged some day, Miss Gatty, if you go on in this deceptious manner."
Gatty.—"Oh, Sib likes the fun, and Serena is so fond of languages, she does not care how much she says, provided it is not in her mother tongue, and I love them both so much, I always like to oblige them."
Schillie.—"I dare say you do, you young sinner. Now see if I don't expose you to Madame, and then in addition to the crime of stealing, you will have fibbing added."
Gatty.—"I am quite ready to go and restore the kettle and other things, if you like it, little Mother. Perhaps you would not mind coming with me to do this act of justice."
Schillie.—"Mention such a thing again, and see how I will punch you, Miss, just as if I would walk one yard nearer those wretches, than the horrid narrow limits of this island oblige me. No, if they were dying by inches for want of their kettle I would not stir one step to give it them."
Serena.—"How severe you are upon them, little Mother, I hate the sight of them, but I don't think I could see them starve."