“This is very strange,” said Mrs. Brown. “I wonder who it can be?”
“Some sailor, you can depend on that,” her husband answered. “No one but a sailor would have things arranged like this. It is in shipshape fashion. We must send Will and Sam over to look at this. They may be able to tell from what ship this house was torn away.”
“Could we come and live here?” Bunny asked. “I think it’s nicer than the grass hut.”
“So do I,” added Sue. “It’s got a door to it that shuts, and windows with glass in ’em.”
This last was only partly true, for out of the windows, of which there were two on either side, most of the glass was broken. It was surprising that even a single pane remained, when one stops to think of the violent storm that had torn the house loose from the ship.
“I hardly think we had better move our camp over here until we see who is living here,” said Mr. Brown. “Whoever does, has a right to this place and they might not like visitors. But if we find that the person who left this place isn’t coming back, then we would have a right to come here. Let’s look about a bit outside.”
There were several chests and boxes in the deckhouse, but these Mr. Brown did not open, though they were not locked. He wanted first to find out what sort of person or persons had been living in the place, cooking over the fireplace and sleeping in the lower bunk.
However, there was little outside to tell anything. Scattered about the beach were broken boxes and barrels and what seemed to be part of a wrecked vessel of some sort.
“It was a sailing ship and not a steamer, that much is sure,” said Mr. Brown, as he and the children picked up pieces of wood. “If we could find out the name we would know more about the wreck.”
Mrs. Brown was growing curious, now that it was certain some one else was on the island besides themselves. She wondered who he was and how long he had been here.