The Girl Crusoes Part 17

"My dears, we haven't a hut," said Tommy. "We be three poor mariners--vagabonds, homeless, ragged and tanned. Who was that old king who sat himself down in a lonely mood to think, and watched a spider spin its web over and over again, and thought he couldn't let a spider beat him and at last beat all his enemies? Oh, dear, that's made me out of breath. Robert Bruce, wasn't it, Mary?"

"Yes; Mrs. Hemans wrote the poem. 'Bruce and the Spider,' it's called."

"I don't care who wrote it, only we've got to spin our web again. Oh, 'Will you walk into my parlour?' said the spider to the fly. 'Please 'm, where's the parlour?' says the fly. There, I'm a lunatic, but I feel so jolly at having caught those runaway oars. I say, are you dry?

I am. That's one advantage of living in a tropical climate; if you get soaked you don't have to s.h.i.+ver while your things are dried at the fire. 'Homeless, ragged and tanned, who so contented as I?'" she sang, and Elizabeth, noticing the high spirits of her wild young sister, hoped that there wouldn't be a reaction, and that Tommy was not going to be ill.

CHAPTER XII

ALARMS AND DISCOVERIES

Contemplating the ruins of the hut they had built up with so much care, the girls felt a very natural chagrin. You have seen a child who has erected a fine house of bricks fly into a rage when the structure topples by its own weight, or at least look utterly woebegone, and leave the scattered bricks lying where they fell. Elizabeth Westmacott and her sisters felt very much the same disinclination to begin again.

The site was a picture of disorder. Portions of the matting had been blown right away; other portions in shreds and tatters had found resting-places among the foliage of the surrounding trees and shrubs.

Some of the canes of the roof dangled from the boughs, others littered the ground amid a tangle of creepers and leaf.a.ge. No one could have supposed that only a few hours before the same place had been a model of neatness.

"It will take an age to tidy up," grumbled Tommy. "Is it worth while to bother about a hut again?"

"I don't like being without a roof over our heads," replied Elizabeth; "but we won't start yet if you don't feel inclined. Let us go and take a look round."

"We shall want some breadfruit for dinner," said Mary, "so we had better go that way. I dare say we shall find all we need on the ground."

They set off towards the breadfruit-trees. Everywhere there were signs of the violence of the storm, but they were surprised and interested to notice that the worst havoc had been wrought in almost a straight line across the island from south-west to north-east.

It was as though some huge giant had gone steadily forward wielding a monstrous scythe. The tornado had cut a clean path through the forest, leaving scarcely a tree standing over a wide s.p.a.ce. Where there had been close, unbroken woodland was now a bare avenue, interrupted by the trunks of trees that had been thrown this way and that. Impressed as the girls had been with the fury of the tornado during the time of their exposure to it, its devastating power was brought home to them now much more strongly. They looked with awe upon its ravages.

"How thankful we ought to be that we were not in its direct path!" said Elizabeth. "A little more to right or left and we should have had trees cras.h.i.+ng down upon us; we might have all been killed."

"It is a dreadful place," said Tommy, subdued and thoughtful. "Oh, Bess, shall we never be found and taken away?"

"We must hope on, dear. It will never do to get downhearted. While we are all well and strong we need not mind so very much, and a s.h.i.+p is sure to come this way some time or other."

"But it might pa.s.s us," said Mary. "I am sure our flag is blown away.

Shall we go and see?"

"Hadn't we better fetch our breadfruit first, now we are in this direction?"

"Of course. We shall have to light another fire, too; ours is sure to be out."

They went on, and on arriving at the breadfruit plantation found, as they had expected, that the ground was littered with fruit, which was already being devoured by land-crabs, insects and birds. They picked up several that were in good condition, and retraced their steps towards the sh.o.r.e.

As they were pa.s.sing through the fringe of woodland, Tommy stopped suddenly, and went down on her knees.

"Oh, do look!" she cried. "Here's a nest on the ground, and the dearest little white parrot you ever saw. Poor little thing! I think it has lost its mother."

The girls stooped to look at it, and Tommy put her hand into the nest.

The tiny bird rustled in alarm, opening its beak to let out a plaintive cry; but it was too young to use its wings, and Tommy took it up and held it gently.

"Its little heart is beating frantically," she said. "Let us take it back with us and try to rear it. You know I wanted one."

"Do you think we can rear it?" said Mary.

"It will starve if we leave it," replied Tommy. "I shall love to try."

The others agreed that there was no harm in trying, so Tommy carried it carefully back with her, now and then stroking the ruffled feathers.

When they got to their camp she laid the bird on a bed of gra.s.s, peeled one of the breadfruits, and held a few crumbs of the pulp in the palm of her hand just below the parrot's beak. But it was too young, or perhaps too frightened, even to feed itself, and it would have fared ill had not its captor been a country girl and known how to deal with such an emergency. She had seen young birds fed by hand, and she at once cut a thin stick and sharpened its end, upon which she stuck a little bit of breadfruit. Then holding the bird in her left hand, she waited until it opened its beak to cry, and quickly slipped the food in. The little bird swallowed it greedily, much to Tommy's delight, and she went on feeding it until Elizabeth suggested that she would kill it with excess.

"The poor thing was hungry," said Tommy. "It's not nearly so much alarmed now. I shall keep it for a pet."

"You'll have to clip its wings, then," said Mary, "or it is sure to fly away as soon as it is strong enough."

"You do it, Mary. Be very gentle, won't you?"

"There's no need yet, perhaps," suggested Elizabeth. "Do it in a day or two when it has got over its fright. It would be just as well to put it in the boat while we are busy. You must take care not to overfeed it, Tommy."

After dinner they went first to the flag-staff. Not a shred of their scarves was left. As they had no material for making another flag, except their handkerchiefs, which they did not care to part with, and their wraps, which they could not spare, they had to give up for the moment any idea of erecting a signal. Then they hastened in the opposite direction, southward, to fetch bananas and oranges for the other meals of the day. A grave disappointment awaited them. There was plenty of fruit on the ground, but the trees themselves, standing in the direct path of the storm, had all been uprooted or broken off, so that when they had used their present supply they could obtain no more at this spot. It would be necessary to go once more in search of food, for they found the breadfruit too insipid to form their only vegetable diet. They knew the district between their camp and the ruined plantation; nothing edible was to be had there. The only other place where they knew that fruit existed was to the east, beyond the ridge; and even now they could not make up their minds to revisit the scene of their scare.

Next day, however, when Tommy had fed her bird and Mary had clipped its wings, and they had spent an hour or so tidying up the site of the hut preparatory to rebuilding, they set off again in a southerly direction, having resolved to extend their exploration within easy distance of the sh.o.r.e. Crossing the broad path of uprooted trees, flattened gra.s.s, and torn undergrowth, they found as they proceeded that the ridge hemmed them in, closer and closer to the sea. This was partly due to the curving of the sh.o.r.e, and partly to the diagonal lie of the rising ground. Little foothills of the ridge extended downwards towards the coast, forming ridges in miniature, cut here and there by streamlets.

On such expeditions Tommy almost always led the way, for her restless and active temperament was impatient of the sedater going of her sisters. But she never went far ahead, and every few minutes, as if alarmed at her own daring, she would run back and keep with the others for a time. She was thus a few yards in advance when, as she mounted a hillock, she came in sight of a number of trees cl.u.s.tering almost at the edge of the sea, and uttered an exclamation of surprise and pleasure.

"Oh, do look here!" she cried. "I believe we have come to some cocoanut palms. You remember we saw some at Valparaiso."

The others ran to join her, and Mary at once declared that she was right. There was no mistaking the tall, smooth stems with their feathery crowns. They all rushed forward eagerly. Thanks to the storm, there were several huge nuts strewing the ground around each of the trees. Tommy, who was first on the scene, picked up one of them and turned it over in her hands in a puzzled way.

"Is it a cocoanut after all?" she said. "It's not a bit like those I have seen in shops."

"It's a cocoanut right enough," replied Mary. "But you've got to strip off the outer husk before you come to the nut itself."

Tommy whipped out her knife and began to cut away the coa.r.s.e, fibrous covering. It was very tough, and she soon declared that it would never come off unless the others helped her. So they all knelt on the ground with the nut in the middle, and employed their knives energetically, until at last the husk was removed. The sh.e.l.l inside was ivory-white, very different from the old brown nuts they had been used to see in England. Being quite brittle, a small piece was easily cut off the top, and they saw the inside full of a pale, milky liquid.

"You first, Tommy," said Elizabeth. "You saw the trees first."

Tommy took a sip of the liquid.

"Delicious!" she said. "I don't think I ever tasted anything so nice."

She drank more, and, handing the nut to Mary, continued--

"It's sweet, Bess, and sour too, something like lemonade, only not like it. It's like--oh, I don't know what it's like; just itself, I suppose. Don't drink it all, Mary."

Elizabeth, when her turn came, p.r.o.nounced it a very refres.h.i.+ng drink, and they were all delighted at so welcome an addition to their larder.

They collected as many nuts as they could carry, and, returning to their camp, stored them in the boat. In the course of the next few days they went several times to the same place, until they had brought back all the nuts that lay on the ground. It was fortunate that so many had been thrown down, for they did not see how they could have obtained them otherwise. Even Tommy, the climber of the family, confessed that she would have been beaten by the smooth, straight stem of the cocoanut palm. Mary had a dim recollection of reading that the natives had a way of climbing the trees by means of a rope, but she could not remember the details of the method, and in any case, Tommy could hardly have used it successfully without a good deal of practice.

Once more relieved from anxiety about food, the girls devoted themselves industriously to the reconstruction of their hut. Their former practice made their task easier. In a few days the new house was finished, and they were especially glad of its shelter at night, instead of the cramping narrowness of the boat.

Days had lengthened into weeks. The notches on their calendar trunk told them how time was flying--a sad reminder in many ways. With so little to do they felt the hours hang heavily on their hands, though Tommy's parrot gave them a little amus.e.m.e.nt and interest. The bird had become quite used to its mistress, and had learnt to take its food from her hand. Its voice, not of very charming quality, as all confessed, grew stronger, and it became accustomed to give a quaint little scream whenever Tommy approached. She would set it on her finger and talk to it, using the same word over and over again, in the hope that it would by and by pick up a phrase or two. But although it became perfectly tame, it could never be induced to subst.i.tute civilized words for its natural scream and squawk.