“I’m going up right now!” cried Bunny, and he would have gone in his pajamas if his mother had not caught him and held him back.
Once they were dressed, however, Bunny and Sue hurried out on deck. As far as they could see, there was no bit of land against which the Beacon had thrust her prow. But about a mile away was a large island with palm trees waving in the wind and white surf breaking on the white sands.
“I thought we had gone aground,” said Bunny. He was somewhat puzzled, for he saw water all around the ship.
“The ground is underneath us,” a sailor explained. “We ran over, and partly on, a sand-bar about five feet under water. That’s why you can’t see it. Our keel is fast in the sand.”
“If we had sand shovels maybe we could dig ourselves out,” said Sue.
“It would take some pretty big shovels, and many of them,” laughed the man. “But I guess when the tide gets higher Captain Ward will start the engines and they will pull us off.”
Bunny and Sue did not understand much about this. All they knew was that the ship was still there in the ocean, not moving, and all about her broke the gentle waves. The waves were gentle, for it was very calm after the fog had blown away, just enough wind moving to carry off the white mist.
“That island looks just like the pictures in the story about Robinson Crusoe,” said Sue, remembering that tale of adventure her mother had read.
“Those are cocoanut trees over there,” declared Bunny. “I can tell by the way they look. And I guess cocoanuts are growing on them. Oh, Sue, wouldn’t you like to go on that island and get some cocoanuts?”
“I just guess I would!” cried the little girl. “And so would Elizabeth!”