“He certainly ought to make good soup,” answered Captain Crane. “It will be nice and fresh, if nothing else.”
While Mr. Chase and his men were mending the broken engine, and the cook was making turtle soup, the Bobbsey twins, with their father and mother and Cousin Jasper, stayed on Palm Island. They walked along the shore, under the shady trees, and watched the blue waves break up on the white sand. Overhead, birds wheeled and flew about, sometimes dashing down into the water with a splash to catch a fish or get something else to eat.
“It’s getting near dinner time,” said Mr. Bobbsey, after a while. “I guess you children had better get ready to go back to the boat for a meal. You must be hungry.”
“I am,” answered Nan. “It always makes me hungry to go in swimming.”
“I’m hungry anyhow, even if I don’t go in swimming,” Bert said.
“Perhaps we could have a little lunch here, on Palm Island, without going back to the Swallow,” Mrs. Bobbsey suggested.
“Oh, that would be fun!” cried Nan.
“Daddy and I’ll go to the ship in the boat and get the things to eat,” proposed Bert. “Then we’ll bring ’em here and have a picnic.”
“Yes, we might do that,” Mr. Bobbsey agreed. “It will save work for the cook, who must be busy with that turtle. We’ll go and get the things for an island picnic.”
“This is almost like the time we were on Blueberry Island,” said Nan, when her father and brother had rowed back to the Swallow.