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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40941 ***
+
+                        THE WRECK OF THE RED BIRD
+
+                      A STORY OF THE CAROLINA COAST
+
+                        BY GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON
+
+    _Author of "The Big Brother," "Captain Sam," "The Signal Boys,"
+    etc., etc._
+
+
+    NEW YORK
+    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+    27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET
+    1882
+
+    COPYRIGHT BY
+    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+    1882
+
+
+    _Press of
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE "BONES" OF THE RED BIRD]
+
+
+
+
+I intended to dedicate this book to my son, GUILFORD DUDLEY EGGLESTON,
+to whom it belonged in a peculiar sense. He was only nine years old, but
+he was my tenderly loved companion, and was in no small degree the
+creator of this story. He gave it the title it bears; he discussed with
+me every incident in it; and every page was written with reference to
+his wishes and his pleasure. There is not a paragraph here which does
+not hold for me some reminder of the noblest, manliest, most unselfish
+boy I have ever known. Ah, woe is me! He who was my companion is my dear
+dead boy now, and I am sure that I only act for him as he would wish, in
+inscribing the story that was so peculiarly his to the boy whom he loved
+best, and who loved him as a brother might have done. It is in memory of
+GUILFORD that I dedicate "The Wreck of the Red Bird" to CHARLES PELTON
+HUTCHINS.
+
+G. C. E.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+        CHAPTER I. MAUM SALLY'S MANNERS                         1
+
+       CHAPTER II. ON THE JOGGLING BOARDS                      10
+
+      CHAPTER III. AFLOAT                                      15
+
+       CHAPTER IV. PLANS AND PREPARATIONS                      28
+
+        CHAPTER V. THE SAILING OF THE "RED BIRD"               35
+
+       CHAPTER VI. ODD FISH                                    40
+
+      CHAPTER VII. AN ENEMY IN THE CAMP                        52
+
+     CHAPTER VIII. THE BEGINNING AND END OF A VOYAGE           59
+
+       CHAPTER IX. THE SITUATION                               68
+
+        CHAPTER X. PLANS AND DEVICES                           79
+
+       CHAPTER XI. SOME OF NED'S SCIENCE                       88
+
+      CHAPTER XII. JACK'S DISCOVERY                           101
+
+     CHAPTER XIII. AN ANXIOUS NIGHT                           109
+
+      CHAPTER XIV. IN THE GRAY OF THE MORNING                 120
+
+       CHAPTER XV. CHARLEY BLACK'S ADVENTURES                 125
+
+      CHAPTER XVI. ON GUARD                                   134
+
+     CHAPTER XVII. A NEW DANGER                               147
+
+    CHAPTER XVIII. A CAMP-FACTORY                             155
+
+      CHAPTER XIX. A NIGHT OF ADVENTURE                       166
+
+       CHAPTER XX. A CALCULATION OF PROFIT AND LOSS           177
+
+      CHAPTER XXI. CHARLEY'S SECRET EXPEDITION                184
+
+     CHAPTER XXII. THE LAUNCH OF THE "APHRODITE"              193
+
+    CHAPTER XXIII. THE VOYAGE OF THE "APHRODITE"              201
+
+     CHAPTER XXIV. MAUM SALLY                                 212
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+    THE "BONES" OF THE RED BIRD                   _Frontispiece._
+
+    "LOOK OUT! HOLD THAT FELLOW AWAY FROM YOU!"                23
+
+    THE ELOQUENT LANGUAGE OF GESTURE                          128
+
+    "GIVE HIM A VOLLEY AND THEN CHARGE!"                      150
+
+    THE END OF CHARLEY'S ADVENTURE                            190
+
+    "HI! MAUM SALLY"                                          214
+
+
+
+
+The Wreck of the Red Bird
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+MAUM SALLY'S MANNERS.
+
+
+"Bress my heart, honey, wha'd you come from?"
+
+It was old "Maum" Sally who uttered this exclamation as she came out of
+her kitchen, drying her hands on her apron, and warmly greeting one of
+the three boys who stood just outside the door.
+
+"Is you done come to visit de folks? Well, I do declar'!"
+
+"Now, Maum Sally," replied Ned Cooke, "stop 'declaring' and stop asking
+me questions till you answer mine. Or, no, you won't do that, so I'll
+answer yours first. Where did I come from? Why from Aiken, by way of
+Charleston and Hardeeville. Did I come to visit the folks? Well, no, not
+exactly that. You see, I didn't set out to come here at all. I have
+spent part of the summer up at Aiken with these two school-mates of
+mine, and they were to spend the rest of it with me in Savannah. We were
+on our way down there when I got a despatch from father, saying that as
+yellow fever has broken out there I mustn't come home, but must come
+down here to Bluffton and stay with Uncle Edward till frost or school
+time. So we got off the train, hired a man with an ox-cart to bring our
+trunks down, and walked the eighteen miles. The man with the trunks will
+get here sometime, I suppose. There! I've made a long speech at you.
+Now, answer my questions, please. Where is Uncle Edward? and where is
+Aunt Helen? and why is the house shut up? and when will they be back
+again? and can't you give us something to eat, for we're nearly
+starved?"
+
+Ned laughed as he delivered this volley of questions, but Maum Sally
+remained perfectly solemn, as she always did. When he finished, she
+said:
+
+"Yaller fever! Bress my heart! It'll be heah nex' thing we knows. Walked
+all de way from Hardeeville! an' dis heah hot day too! e'en a'most
+starved! Well, I reckon ye is, an' I'll jes mosey roun' heah an' git you
+some supper."
+
+It must be explained that Maum Sally, although she lived on the coast of
+South Carolina, and was called "Maum" instead of "Aunt," was born and
+"raised," as she would have said, in "Ole Firginny," and her dialect was
+therefore somewhat as represented here. The negroes of the coast speak a
+peculiar jargon, which would be wholly unintelligible to other than
+South Carolinian readers, even if I could render it faithfully by
+phonetic spelling.
+
+As Maum Sally ceased speaking, she turned to go into her kitchen, which,
+as is usual in the South, was a detached building, standing some
+distance from the main house.
+
+"But wait, Maum Sally," cried Ned, seizing her hand; "I'm not going to
+let you off that way. You haven't answered my questions yet."
+
+"Now, look heah, young Ned," she said, with great solemnity, "does you
+s'pose Ole Sally was bawn and raised in Ole Firginny for nothin'? I aint
+forgot my manners nor hospitality, ef I _is_ lived nigh onto twenty-five
+years in dis heah heathen coast country whah de niggas talks monkey
+language. I'se a gwine to git you'n your fr'en's--ef you'll interduce
+'em--some supper, fust an' foremost. Den I'll answer all de questions
+you're a mind to ax, ef you don't git to conundrumin'."
+
+Ned acknowledged Maum Sally's rebuke promptly.
+
+"I did forget my manners," he said, "but you see I was badly flustered.
+This is my friend Jack Farnsworth, Maum Sally, and this," turning to the
+other boy, "is Charley Black. Boys, let me make you acquainted with Maum
+Sally, the best cook in South Carolina, or anywhere else, and the best
+Maum Sally in the world. She used to give me all sorts of good things to
+eat out here when I didn't get up to breakfast, and was expected to get
+on till dinner with a cold bite from the store-room. I'll bet she'll
+cook us a supper that will make your mouths water, and have it ready by
+the time we get the dust out of our eyes."
+
+"Git de dus' out'n de all over you, more like. Heah's de key to de
+bath-house. You jes run down an' take a dip in de salt water, an' den
+git inter yer clo'es as fas' as you kin, an' when you's done dat, you'll
+fin' somethin' to eat awaitin' for you in de piazza. Git, now, quick. Ef
+I'se got to plan somethin' for supper, I'se got to hab my wits about me
+an' don' want no talkin' boys aroun'."
+
+"It's of no use, boys," said Ned. "I know Maum Sally, and we're not
+going to get a word more out of her till supper is ready, so come on,
+let's have a plunge. It's all right, anyhow. My uncle and aunt have gone
+away for the day somewhere, I suppose, and will be back sometime
+to-night. If they don't come, I'll find a way to break into the house.
+It's my father's, you know, and one of my homes. In fact, I was born
+here. Uncle Edward lives here a good part of the time, because he likes
+it, and father lives in Savannah a good part of the year, because he
+doesn't like it here. Come, let's get a bath."
+
+With that Ned conducted his guests to a pretty little bath-house which
+stood out over the water, and was approached by a green bridge. Bluffton
+abounds in these well-appointed, private bathing-houses, which, with
+their ornamental approaches, add not a little to the beauty of the
+singular town, which is scarcely a town at all in the ordinary sense of
+the word, as Ned explained to his companions while they were dressing
+after their bath.
+
+"This coast country," he said, "is plagued with country fever."
+
+"What's country fever?" asked Jack Farnsworth.
+
+"It's a very severe and fatal form of bilious fever, which one night's
+exposure--or even a few hours' exposure after sunset--brings on."
+
+"Then why did you bring us here?" asked Charley. "Are we to find
+ourselves down with country fever to-morrow morning?"
+
+"No, not at all," replied Ned. "Country fever stays strictly at home. It
+never goes to town; it never visits high ground where there are pines,
+white sand, and no moss; and it never comes to Bluffton. That's why
+there is any Bluffton. All along the coast the planters have their
+winter residences on their plantations, but in the summer they go off to
+little summer villages in the pines to escape the fever. In the region
+just around us, it is so much easier and pleasanter to live here in
+Bluffton that they build permanent residences here and live here all the
+year around. There is no trade here, no shops--except a blacksmith shop
+out on the road--no stores, no any thing except private houses, and the
+private houses are all built pretty nearly alike. Each stands alone in a
+large plot of ground, which is filled with trees and shrubs just as all
+the streets are. Each house has a piazza running all the way around it,
+or pretty nearly that, and each has two or three joggling boards."
+
+"What in the world is a joggling board?" asked Charley.
+
+"I'll introduce you when we get back to the house," said Ned.
+
+When the boys returned to the house, Ned's prediction was abundantly
+fulfilled. Maum Sally had spread a tempting, if somewhat incongruous
+supper in the piazza. There was a piece of cold ham, some fried fresh
+fish, a dish of shrimps stewed with tomatoes, a great platter of rice
+cooked in the South Carolinian way, and intended for use in lieu of
+bread, some boiled okra, roast sweet potatoes, and a pot of steaming
+coffee. It was a miscellaneous sort of meal, compounded of breakfast,
+dinner, and supper in about equal proportions, but it was such a meal as
+three healthy boys, who had walked eighteen miles and had then taken a
+sea bath, were not in the least disposed to quarrel with.
+
+"Now, Maum Sally," said Ned, after he had complimented the supper and
+taken his seat at the table, "tell me where Uncle Edward and Aunt Helen
+are, and when they will get back?"
+
+"Ain't ye got no manners at all, young Ned?" asked Sally, with an air of
+profound surprise; she always called the boy "Young Ned" when she wished
+to put him in awe of her; "ain't ye got no manners at all, or is you
+forgot 'em all sence I seed you last? Don' you know your frien's is a
+starvin'? and here you is a plaguin' me with questions insti'd o'
+helpin' on 'em. Mind yer manners, young gentleman, an' then I'll answer
+yer questions."
+
+"All right, Maum Sally," said Ned; "Charley, let me give you some cold
+ham. Jack, help yourself to some fish. There are the shrimps, boys,
+between you. Maum Sally, pour out some coffee, please. Jack, you'll find
+the okra good; here, Charley, let me help you to rice."
+
+Maum Sally, meanwhile, was pouring coffee and filling plates; when
+supper was well under way, she stood back a little way, placed her hands
+on her hips, her arms akimbo, and said with the utmost solemnity:
+
+"Seems 's if somebody axed me somethin' or other 'bout de folks when I
+was too busy to ten' to 'em. Ef you'll ax me agin now, I'll be
+obleeged."
+
+"Yes, upon reflection," said Ned, "I am inclined to think that I
+ventured to make some inquiry concerning my uncle and aunt. If I
+remember correctly, I asked where they are, and at what time they are
+likely to return."
+
+"Whah is dey? Well, I don' rightly know, an' I can't say adzac'ly when
+dey'll be back agin. But I specs deys somewhah out on de sea, an' I
+s'pose dey'll be back about nex' November."
+
+"What!" cried Ned, in surprise, suspending his attention to supper, and
+forgetting to maintain his pretence of dignified indifference. "What do
+you mean, Maum Sally?"
+
+"Well, what I mean is dis heah. Yo' uncle an' aunt lef' here three days
+ago to go north. Dey said dey was a gwine to de centenimental
+expedition, an' to Newport an' somewhahs else--I reckon it was to some
+sort o' mountains--White Mountains, mebbe, an dey said dey'd be back
+agin in November, ef dey didn't make up dere minds to stay longer, or
+come back afore dat time. So now you knows as much about it as I does."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ON THE JOGGLING BOARDS.
+
+
+To say that Ned was surprised is to describe his feeling very mildly.
+Knowing his uncle's easy, indolent mode of life, his contentment with
+home, his lazy love of books and pipes and ease generally, Ned would as
+soon have expected to hear that the organ in the little church had gone
+off summering, as to learn that his uncle and aunt were travelling.
+
+The other boys were in consternation.
+
+"What on earth shall we do?" asked Jack Farnsworth.
+
+"Better eat supper, fust an' fo'most," replied Maum Sally, whose theory
+of life consisted of a profound conviction that the important thing to
+be done was to eat an abundance of good food, well-cooked.
+
+"That's so," said Ned. "We can't bring my uncle back by neglecting our
+supper, but we can let the coffee get cold, and that would be a pity.
+Let's eat now while the things are hot."
+
+"Yes," replied Charley Black, "that's all right, but after that?"
+
+"Why, after that we'll try the joggling boards."
+
+"But, Ned," remonstrated Charley, "this won't do. Your uncle has gone
+away, and the house is shut up and so we can't stay here. Now, I move
+that you go back to Aiken with us."
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Ned. "I've visited at your house and at
+Jack's, and now you're my guests. Do you think I've 'forgot my manners,'
+as Maum Sally says?"
+
+"But, Ned," said Jack, "you see the situation has changed since we
+started to go home with you. You can't go home, and now you can't stay
+here."
+
+"Can't I though?" asked Ned; "and why not? I know a way into the house,
+and if you'll stay where you are for five minutes, I'll have the big
+doors unbarred and invite you in."
+
+With that Ned stepped upon the piazza railing, caught a timber above,
+and easily swung himself up to the roof of the porch. Thence he made his
+way quickly to a round window in the garret--the house was only one
+story high, with a high garret story for the protection of the rooms
+from the heat of the sun. Pushing open this round window he sprang in,
+descended the stairs, and a moment later the boys heard him taking down
+the wooden bar which kept the great double doors fast. Then drawing the
+bolts at top and bottom, he swung the doors open without difficulty.
+
+"Come in, boys," he cried. "I'll open the doors at the other side, and
+we'll have a breeze through the hall."
+
+"But I say, old fellow," said Charley, "I don't like this. What will
+your uncle think of us for making free with his house in this way?"
+
+"What, Uncle Edward? Why, he wouldn't ask how we got in if he were to
+get home now. He never troubles himself, and he's the best uncle in the
+world; so is Aunt Helen, or, I should say, she is the best aunt. And,
+besides, I tell you, this isn't Uncle Edward's house. It's my father's,
+and all the furniture is his too. Uncle Edward lives here just because
+he likes it here, and because father likes to have him here. But the
+house is ours, and sometimes we all come here without warning, and stay
+for months. It don't make any difference, except that more plates are
+put on the table. Every thing goes on just the same, and if Uncle Edward
+were to come in now he would hardly remember that we weren't here when
+he went away. So make yourselves easy. You're in my home just as much as
+if we were in Savannah, and there's nobody here to be bothered by our
+fun. We'll stay here and fish and row and bathe, and have a jolly time.
+The servants have all gone away, I suppose, except Maum Sally, but
+she'll take good care of us. You see, I'm her special pet. She has
+thought it her duty to coddle me and scold me and regulate me generally
+ever since I was born, and she likes nothing better. So come on out here
+and I'll introduce you unfortunate up-country boys to that greatest of
+human inventions, a joggling board. There are four or five of them on
+the front piazza."
+
+This hospitable harangue satisfied the scruples of the boys, and the
+house was so pleasant, with its large, high rooms, wide hall, and broad
+piazzas--one of which looked out over the water,--the grounds were so
+tasteful, the trees so large and fine, and the whole aspect of Bluffton
+was so quiet and restful, that they were glad to settle themselves
+contentedly after their long tramp from the railroad at Hardeeville.
+
+"The best way to get acquainted with a joggling board," said Ned,
+approaching a queer-looking structure on the piazza, "is to get on it.
+Try it and see, Charley. Don't be afraid. It won't turn over, and it
+can't break down. There," as Charley seated himself upon the board, "lie
+down now, and move almost any muscle you please the least bit in the
+world, and you'll understand what the thing is for."
+
+"Oh! isn't it jolly!" exclaimed Charley, as the board began to sway
+gently under him and the breeze from the sea fanned him.
+
+"It is all of that," replied Ned. "I'll get some pillows as soon as I
+get Jack to risk his precious neck on a board, and then we'll all be
+comfortable, like clams at high-tide. Jump up, Jack; it won't tip over.
+Now swing your legs up and lie down. There, how's that?"
+
+Jack gave a sigh of satisfaction, while Ned ran into the house for sofa
+pillows. The three boys, tired as they were, soon ceased to talk, and
+fell asleep to the gentle swaying of the joggling boards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AFLOAT.
+
+
+Once asleep on the cool, breeze-swept piazza, the three tired boys were
+not inclined to wake easily. The sun went down, but still they slept.
+Finally the teamster from Hardeeville arrived with the trunks on an
+ox-cart, and his loud cries to his oxen aroused Charley, who sprang up
+suddenly. Forgetting that his couch was a joggling board more than three
+feet high he undertook to step upon the floor as if he had been sleeping
+on an ordinary sofa. The result was that his feet, failing to reach the
+floor at the expected distance, were thrown backward under the board by
+the forward motion of the upper part of the body, and Master Charles
+Black, of Aiken, fell sprawling on the floor, waking both the other boys
+in alarm.
+
+"What's up?" cried Ned.
+
+"Nothing. I'm down," replied Charley. "I thought you said the thing
+wouldn't turn over."
+
+"Well, it hasn't," said Ned. "Look and see. It's you that turned over.
+Are you hurt, old fellow?"
+
+Charley was by this time on his feet again, and declared himself wholly
+free from hurt of any kind. The trunks were brought in, the driver
+turned over to Maum Sally's hospitality, and Ned declared it to be time
+for bed.
+
+"Whew! how cold it is!" exclaimed Jack. "Do you have such changes of
+weather often, down here on the coast?"
+
+"Only twice in twenty-four hours at this season," answered Ned, as they
+went into the house.
+
+"Twice in twenty-four hours! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean once in twelve hours," answered Ned.
+
+"How is that? I don't understand."
+
+"Well, you see our late summer dews have begun to fall. If you were to
+go out now, you would find the water actually dripping from the trees.
+From this time on it will be chilly at night, almost cold, in fact, but
+hot as the tropic of Cancer in the daytime. So we have a sudden change
+of temperature twice a day--once from cold to hot, and once from hot to
+cold."
+
+The boys were too sleepy to talk long, and the sun was shining in at the
+east windows when Maum Sally waked them the next morning for a breakfast
+as miscellaneous as the supper had been; sliced tomatoes and figs, still
+wet with the dew, being prominent features of the meal.
+
+After breakfast Ned looked up a great variety of fishing tackle and got
+it in order.
+
+"Where are your fish poles?" asked one of the boys.
+
+"Fish poles! we don't use them in salt water. We fish with tight lines."
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"Why, long lines with a sinker at the end and no poles."
+
+"Do you just hold the line in your hand?"
+
+"Certainly. And another thing that we don't use is a float. We just fish
+right down in the deep water--or the shallow water rather, for the best
+fishing is on bars where the water isn't more than twenty feet deep; but
+deep or shallow, the fish are at the bottom, except skip-jacks; they
+swim on top, and sometimes we troll for them. They call them blue fish
+up North, I believe, but we call them skip-jacks or jack mackerel."
+
+"What's that?" asked Jack, as Ned spread out a round net for inspection.
+
+"A cast net."
+
+"What's it for?"
+
+"Shrimps."
+
+"But I thought we were going fishing."
+
+"So we are. But we must go shrimping first. We must have some bait."
+
+"Oh, we are to use shrimps for bait, are we?"
+
+"Very much so indeed," answered Ned. "They are capital bait--the best we
+have, unless we want to catch sheephead; then we use fiddlers."
+
+"What are fiddlers?"
+
+"Little black crabs that run about by millions over the sand. They have
+hard shells that whiting and croakers can't crack, while the sheephead,
+having good teeth, crush them easily. So when we want to catch
+sheephead, and don't want to be bothered with other fish, we bait with
+fiddlers."
+
+"Then I understand that fish are so plentiful here and so easily caught
+that they bother you when you want to catch particular kinds?" said
+Jack, incredulously.
+
+"If you mean that for a question," answered Ned, "I'll let you answer it
+for yourself after you've had a little experience."
+
+"Well, if we don't get any shrimps," said Charley, "we'll fish for
+sheephead with musicians."
+
+"Musicians? oh, you mean fiddlers," said Ned. "But we'll get shrimps
+enough."
+
+"Do they bother you, too, with their abundance?" asked Jack, still
+inclined to joke his friend.
+
+"Come on and see," said Ned, who had now prepared himself for wading.
+
+Taking the cast net in his hand, and giving a pail to Jack, he led the
+way to the sea. Wading into the mouth of a little inlet he cast the net,
+which was simply a circular piece of netting, with a string of leaden
+balls around the edge. From this lead line cords extended on the under
+side of the net to and through a ring in the centre where they were
+fastened to a long cord which was held in Ned's hand. A peculiar motion
+in casting caused the net to spread itself out flat and to fall in that
+way on the water. The leaden balls caused it to sink at once to the
+bottom, the edges reaching bottom first, of course, and imprisoning
+whatever happened to be under the net in its passage. After a moment's
+pause, to give time for the lead line to sink completely, Ned jerked the
+cord and began to draw in. Of course this drew the lead line along the
+bottom to the centre ring, and made a complete pocket of the net,
+securely holding whatever was caught in it.
+
+It came up after this first cast with about a hundred shrimps--of the
+large kind called prawn in the North--in it. The boys opened their eyes
+in surprise, and Ned cast again, bringing up this time about twice as
+many as before.
+
+"They have hardly begun to come in yet," said Ned. "The tide is too
+young."
+
+"Hardly begun to come in?" said Jack, "why, the water's alive with them.
+Let me throw the net."
+
+"Certainly," said Ned, "if you know how."
+
+"Know how? Why, there's no knack in that; anybody can do it."
+
+With this confident boast Jack took the net and gave a violent cast.
+Neglecting to relax the rope at the right moment, however, the confident
+young gentleman made trouble for himself. The lead line swung around
+rapidly, the net wrapped itself around Jack, and the leaden balls struck
+him with sufficient violence to hurt. He lost his balance at the same
+instant, and, his legs being held close together by the wet net, he
+could not step out to recover himself. The result was that he fell
+sprawling into the water and was fished out in a very wet condition by
+his companions.
+
+Jack was a boy capable of seeing the fun even in an accident of which he
+was the victim. He stood still while the net was unwound, and for a
+moment afterward. Then, seeing that the other boys were too considerate
+to laugh at him while in trouble, he quietly said:
+
+"I told you I could do it."
+
+"Well, you caught more in the net than I did," said Ned. "Now take hold
+again and I'll show you how to manage it. Your wet clothes won't hurt
+you. Sea-water doesn't give one cold."
+
+A few lessons made Jack fairly expert in casting, but Charley had no
+mind to court mishaps, and would not try his skill. The pail was soon
+well filled with shrimps, and the boys returned to the boat house,
+where Jack changed his wet clothes for dry ones.
+
+Then all haste was made to get the boat out, in order that they might
+fish while the tide was right. The boat was a large launch named _Red
+Bird_; a boat twenty-four feet long, very broad in the beam, and very
+stoutly built. It was provided with a mast and sail, but these were of
+no use now as there was no wind, and the bars on which Ned meant to fish
+were only a few hundred yards distant.
+
+No sooner was the anchor cast than the lines were out, and the fish
+began accepting the polite invitation extended to them.
+
+"What sort of fish are these, Ned?" asked Charley, as he took one from
+his hook.
+
+"That," said Ned, looking round, "is a whiting--so called, I believe,
+because it is brown, and yellow, and occasionally pink and purple, with
+changeable silk stripes over it. That's the only reason I can think of
+for calling it a whiting. It is never white. It isn't properly a whiting
+for that matter. It isn't at all the same as the whiting of the North,
+at any rate."
+
+"Why, they're changing color," exclaimed Jack.
+
+"Look! they actually change color under your very eyes."
+
+"Yes, it's a way whiting have," said Ned. "And some other fish do the
+same thing, I believe."
+
+"Dolphins do," said Charley.
+
+"Yes, but the whiting isn't even a second cousin to the dolphin. That's
+a croaker you've got, Jack; spot on his tail--splendid fish to eat--and
+he croaks. Listen!"
+
+The fish did begin to utter a curious croaking sound, which surprised
+the boys. Other croakers were soon in the boat, and the company of them
+set up a croaking of which the inhabitants of a frog pond might not have
+been ashamed.
+
+"They call croakers 'spot' in Virginia," said Ned, "because of the spot
+near the tail. Look at it. Isn't it pretty? and isn't the fish itself a
+beauty?"
+
+"But the whiting is prettier," said Charley; "at least in colors. I say,
+Ned, do you know if whiting ever dine on kaleidoscopes?"
+
+"Look out! hold that fellow away from you! hold the line at arm's length
+and don't let the brute strike you with his tail for your life!"
+exclaimed Ned, excitedly, as Charley drew a curious-looking creature
+up.
+
+[Illustration: "LOOK OUT! HOLD THAT FELLOW AWAY FROM YOU!"]
+
+"What is the thing?" asked both the up-country boys in a breath.
+
+"A stingaree," replied Ned, "and as ugly as a rattlesnake. See how
+viciously he strikes with his tail! Let him down slowly till his tail
+touches the bottom of the boat. There! Now wait till he stops striking
+for a moment and then clap your foot on his tail. Ah! now you've got
+him. Now cut the tail off close to the body and the fellow's harmless."
+
+"What is the creature anyhow?" asked Jack, who had suspended his fishing
+operations to observe the monster. "What did you call it?"
+
+"Well, the gentleman belongs to a large and distinguished family. To
+speak broadly, he is a plagiostrome chondropterygian, of the sub-order
+_raiiæ_, commonly called skates. To define him more particularly, he is
+a member of the trygonidæ family, familiarly known as sting rays, and
+called by negroes and fishermen, and nearly every body else on the
+coast, stingarees."
+
+"Where on earth did you get that jargon from?" asked Charley.
+
+"It isn't jargon, and I got it from my uncle. He told me one day not to
+call these things stingarees, but sting rays, and then for fun rattled
+off a lot of scientific talk at me, which I made him repeat until I knew
+it by heart. What I know about sting rays is this: there are a good many
+kinds of them in different quarters of the world. In the North they have
+the American sting ray, which is much larger than ours down here, though
+we sometimes catch them two or three feet wide. Ours is the European
+sting ray, I believe; at any rate, it isn't the American. They are all
+of them closely alike. They are brown on top and white beneath. You see
+the shape--not unlike that of a turtle, but with something like wings at
+the sides, and with a skin instead of a shell, and no legs. The most
+interesting things about them are their long, slender tails. See,"
+picking up the amputated tail and turning it over; "see the gentleman's
+weapons. Those bony spikes, with their barbed sides, make very ugly
+wounds whenever the sting ray gets a good shot at a leg or an arm. The
+negroes say the barbs are poisonous, like a rattlesnake's fangs; but the
+scientific folk dispute that. However that may be, a man was laid up for
+three months right here in Bluffton, during the war, with a foot so bad
+that the surgeons thought they would have to cut it off, and all from a
+very slight wound by a sting-ray."
+
+"Ugh!" cried Jack. "It isn't necessary to suppose poison; to have one of
+those horrible bones driven into your flesh and then drawn out with the
+notches all turned the wrong way, is enough to make any amount of
+trouble, without adding poison."
+
+"Perhaps that accounts for the stories told of the Indians shooting
+poisoned arrows," said Ned. "They used sting-ray stings for arrow-heads
+at any rate."
+
+"And very capital arrow-heads they would make," said Charley, examining
+the spikes, which were about the size of a large lead-pencil, about
+three or four inches long, and barbed all along the sides, so that they
+looked not unlike rye beards under a microscope. These spikes are placed
+not at the end of the tail, but near the middle.
+
+"Are sting rays good to eat?" asked Jack, examining the slimy, flabby
+creature.
+
+"It all depends upon the taste of the eater," replied Ned. "The negroes
+sometimes eat the flaps or wings, and most white people on the coast
+have curiosity enough to taste them. They always say there's nothing
+bad about the taste, but I never knew anybody to take to sting rays as a
+delicacy. Some people say that alligator steaks are good, and a good
+many people eat sharks now and then. For my part good fish are too
+plentiful here for me to experiment with bad ones."
+
+The fishing was resumed now, and it was not long before Jack confessed
+that the fish were beginning to "bother" him by their abundance and
+eagerness.
+
+"Ned," he said, "I apologize. If you've any fiddlers about your clothes,
+I believe I'll confine my attention to sheephead; I'm tired of pulling
+fish in."
+
+"Well, let's go ashore, then," said Ned, laughing, "and have dinner."
+
+"Do fish bite in that way generally down here?" asked Charley.
+
+"Yes, when the tide isn't too full. Fishing really gets to be a bore
+here, it is so easy to fill a boat; anybody can do that as easily as
+throw a cast net."
+
+"Now hush that," said Charley. "Jack has owned up and apologized, and
+agreed that he knows more than he did this morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PLANS AND PREPARATIONS.
+
+
+After dinner the boys lolled upon the piazza, and Ned answered his
+companions' questions concerning Bluffton and region round about.
+
+"The water here is called South May River," he said, "but why, I don't
+know. It certainly isn't a river. This whole coast is a ragged edge of
+land with all sorts of inlets running up into it, and with islands, big
+and little, dotted about off the mainland. Yonder is Hilton Head away
+over near the horizon. Hunting Island lies off to the left, and Bear's
+Island further away yet. The little marsh islands have no names. They
+are simply bars of mud on which a kind of rank grass, called salt marsh,
+grows. Some of them are covered by every tide; others only by
+spring-tides, while others are covered by all except neap-tides."
+
+"Is there any land over that way, to the right of Hilton Head?" Charley
+asked.
+
+"Good idea!" exclaimed Ned. "I say, let's go buffalo-hunting and
+crusoeing and yachting all at once."
+
+"What sort of answer is that nonsense to my question?" asked Charley,
+with mock dignity and real doubt as to his friend's meaning.
+
+"Well, I jumped a little, that's all," said Ned. "Your question
+suggested my answer. Bee Island lies over there, out of sight. It's my
+uncle's land. It used to be a sea-island plantation, but was abandoned
+during the war and has never been occupied since. It has grown up and is
+as wild as if it had never been cultivated at all. The cattle were left
+on it when the place was abandoned, and they went completely wild.
+During the war parties of soldiers from both sides used to go over there
+to hunt the wild cattle. Sometimes they met each other and hunted each
+other instead of the cattle. Now it just occurred to me that we might
+have jolly fun by fitting out an expedition, sailing over there in the
+_Red Bird_--you see these land-locked waters are never very rough or
+dangerous--and camping there as long as we like. When we are in the
+boat, we will be yachtsmen of the 'swellest' sort; when we're on the
+desert island--or deserted, rather, for it is desert only in the past
+tense--we'll be Robinson Crusoes; and when we want beef we'll kill a
+wild cow, if there are any left, and be buffalo hunters, for what's a
+buffalo but a sort of wild cow?"
+
+"Is the fishing good over there?" asked Jack, "for I'm not so much
+bothered by the fish yet that I want to quit catching them."
+
+"As good as here."
+
+"All right, let's go," said Jack.
+
+"So say I," responded Charley. "When shall we start?"
+
+"To-morrow morning. It will take all this afternoon to get ready," said
+Ned.
+
+With that they set to work collecting necessary materials.
+
+"We must have all sorts of things," said Ned.
+
+"Yes," answered Jack, "particularly in our characters as Robinson
+Crusoes."
+
+"How's that?" asked Charley. "He had nothing. He was shipwrecked, you
+know."
+
+"Yes, I know. But did you never notice what extraordinary luck he had?
+Absolutely every thing that was indispensable to him came ashore or was
+brought ashore from that accommodating wreck. Why, he even got gunpowder
+enough to last him, and whatever the ship didn't yield the island did. I
+always suspected that Robinson Crusoe loaded that ship himself with
+special reference to his needs on the island, and picked out the right
+island, and then ran the ship on the rocks purposely."
+
+This interpretation of Robinson Crusoe's character and life was a novel
+one to Jack's companions; but their plan for their expedition did not
+include any purpose to deny themselves needed conveniences.
+
+The large duck gun was taken down from its hooks in the hall, and a good
+supply of ammunition was put into the shot pouches and powder flask.
+This included one pouch of buckshot and one of smaller shot for fowls.
+The fishing tackle was already in the boat house, as we know. An axe, a
+hatchet, a piece of bacon, to be used in frying fish, a small bag of
+rice, another of flour, and another of sweet potatoes, a box of salt,
+another of sugar--both water-tight,--and some coffee, completed the list
+of stores as planned by the boys. Maum Sally contemplated the
+collection, after the boys had declared it to be complete, and
+exclaimed;
+
+"Well, I 'clar now!"
+
+"What's the matter, Maum Sally?" asked Ned.
+
+"Nothin', on'y it's jis zacly like a passel o' boys, dat is."
+
+"What is?"
+
+"W'y wot for is you a takin' things to eat?" asked Sally.
+
+"Because we'll want to eat them," said Ned.
+
+"Raw?" asked Sally.
+
+"That's so," said Ned, with a look of confusion. "Boys, we haven't put
+in a single cooking utensil!"
+
+Laughing at their blunder, the boys set about choosing from Maum Sally's
+stores what they thought was most imperatively needed. Two skillets, one
+to be used for frying and the other for baking bread; a kettle, to be
+used in boiling rice, in heating water for coffee, and as a bread pan in
+which to mix corn bread; a coffee pot; some tin cups; three forks and
+three plates, constituted their outfit.
+
+Each boy had his pocket knife, of course, and Ned had put into the boat
+a large hunting knife from the house.
+
+When all was stored ready for the morning's departure, the boys ate
+their supper and betook themselves to the piazza.
+
+"I hope there'll be a fair breeze in the morning," said Ned, "for it
+will be a frightful job to row that big boat to Bee Island if there
+isn't wind enough to sail."
+
+"How far is it?" asked Jack.
+
+"About a dozen miles. But there is nearly always, breeze enough to sail,
+after we get away from the bluffs here; but the tide will be against
+us."
+
+"How do you know?" asked Charley.
+
+"Why it will begin running up about eight o'clock to-morrow, and of
+course it won't turn till about two."
+
+"How do you know it will begin running up about eight o'clock?"
+
+"Why, because it began running up a little after seven this morning."
+
+"Well, what has that got to do with it? Don't it all depend on the
+wind?"
+
+"What a landlubber you are!" exclaimed Ned. "No, it don't depend on the
+wind. It depends on the moon and the sun. I'll try to explain."
+
+"No, don't," said Jack; "let him read about it in his geography, or
+explain it to him some other time. Tell us about something else now.
+Isn't the country fever likely to bother us over there on the island?"
+
+"No, not if we select a good place to camp in. We must get on pretty
+high ground near the salt water. I know the look of healthy and
+unhealthy places pretty well, and we'll be safe enough."
+
+"All right. When we get into camp you can deliver that lecture on tides
+if you want to, but just now we wouldn't attend to it. We're apt to be a
+trifle cross in the evenings over there if we get tired. Tired people in
+camp are always cross, and it will be just as well to save whatever you
+have to say till we need something to talk about. Then you can tell us
+all about it."
+
+"Well, now, I've something interesting to tell you without waiting,"
+said Ned; "something very interesting."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That it is after nine o'clock; that we want to get up early; and that
+we'd better go to bed."
+
+"Agreed," said his companions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE SAILING OF THE "RED BIRD."
+
+
+The boys were out of bed not long after daylight the next morning. The
+sky was clear, but there was not a particle of breeze, and even before
+the sun rose the air was hot and stifling to a degree never before
+experienced by either of Ned's visitors.
+
+"I say, Ned, this is a frightful morning," said Jack. "I feel myself
+melting as I stand here in my clothes. I'm already as weak as a pound of
+butter looks in the sun. How we're going to breathe when the sun comes
+up, I'm at a loss to determine. Whew!" and with that Jack sat down
+exhausted.
+
+"A nice time we'll have rowing," said Charley. "I move we swim and push
+the boat. It'll be cooler, and not much harder work. Does it ever rain
+here? because if it does I'm waiting for a shower. I'm wilted down, and
+nothing short of a drenching will revive me."
+
+"Well," said Ned, "come, let's take a drenching. I'm going to take a
+header off the boat-house pier. It's low-water now, and there's a clear
+jump of ten feet. A plunge will wake us up, and by that time breakfast
+will be ready, and what is more to the point, the tide will turn. That's
+a comfort."
+
+"Why?" asked Charley.
+
+"Because when it turns a sea-breeze will come with it. This sort of heat
+is what we'd have here all summer long if it wasn't for land- and
+sea-breezes. As it is we never have it except at dead low water, and it
+is always followed by a good stiff sea-breeze when the tide turns. We'll
+be able to sail instead of swimming over to the island. But come, let's
+have our plunge now."
+
+After breakfast the boys went to the boat house to bestow their freight
+in the boat. The tide had turned, and, as Ned had predicted, a cool,
+stimulating breeze had begun to blow, so that the strength returned to
+Jack's knees and Charley's resolution.
+
+"It will be best to fill the boat's water kegs," said Ned; "partly
+because we'll want water on the way, partly because we'll want water on
+the island, while we're digging for a permanent supply."
+
+"By the way," said Jack, "what are we going to dig with?"
+
+"Well, there's another blunder," said Ned. "If Robinson Crusoe had
+forgotten things in that way, he never would have lived through his
+island experiences. We must have a shovel and a pick. I'll run up to the
+house and look for them while you boys fill the water kegs."
+
+When Ned got back to the boat he was confronted by Maum Sally with a big
+bundle.
+
+"What is it, Maum Sally?"
+
+"Oh nothin', on'y I spose you young gentlemen is a gwine to sleep jes a
+little now an' then o' nights, an' so, as you hasn't thought on it
+yerse'fs, I's done brung you some bedclo'es."
+
+"Now look here, boys," said Ned; "we'll go off without our heads yet.
+We've lost our heads several times already, in fact. There's nothing for
+it except just to imagine ourselves at the island, and run through a
+whole day and night in our minds to see what we're going to need."
+
+"That's a good idea," said Charley. "I'll begin. I'll need my mother
+the first thing, because here's a button off my collar."
+
+The party laughed, of course, but there was force in the suggestion. A
+few buttons, a needle or two, and some stout thread were straightway
+added to the ship's stores.
+
+"Now let's see," said Ned. "We'll need to build a shelter first thing,
+and we've all the tools necessary for that, because I've thought it out
+carefully. Then we have our digging tools. Very well. Now, for breakfast
+we need, let me see," and he ran over the materials and utensils already
+enumerated. Going on in this way through an imaginary day on the island,
+the boys found their list of stores now reasonably complete. From Maum
+Sally's bundle they selected three blankets, which they rolled up tight
+and bestowed behind the water keg at the stern. Maum Sally had brought
+pillows, sheets, and a large mattress, which she earnestly besought them
+to take, but they declined to add to their cargo any thing which could
+be dispensed with. At the very last moment one of the boys thought of
+matches. It was decided that three small boxes would be sufficient, as
+they could keep fire by the exercise of a little caution.
+
+Thus equipped, they bade Maum Sally good-by, and cast the boat loose.
+The sail filled, the _Red Bird_ lay a little over upon one side, with
+the wind nearly abeam, and the boys settled themselves into their
+places.
+
+"I say, young Ned," called Maum Sally, "how long's ye mean to be gone?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. May be a month," was the reply.
+
+"Well, not a day longer 'n dat, now mind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ODD FISH.
+
+
+The sea-breeze was fresh and full, and it blew from a favorable quarter.
+There were various windings about among the small islands to be made,
+and now and then the course for a brief distance was against the wind,
+and as this was the case only where the channel was narrow, it was
+necessary to make a series of very short "tacks," which gave Ned an
+opportunity to instruct his companions in the art of sailing a boat. In
+the main, however, there was an abundance of sea-room, and Ned could lay
+his course directly for Bee Island and keep the wind on the quarter. It
+was barely eleven o'clock, therefore, when the _Red Bird_ came to her
+moorings on the island, and the boys went ashore.
+
+"Now the first thing that Robinson Crusoe did after he got his wits
+about him," said Jack, "was to build his residence. Let's follow the
+example of that experienced mariner, and choose our building-site before
+we begin to bring away things from the wreck; I mean, before we unload
+our plunder."
+
+"Yes, that's our best plan," said Ned. "We don't want to do any more
+carrying than we must. Let me see. We're on the north side of the
+island. If I remember right, the negro quarters used to be to the east
+of this spot, and the negroes must have got water from somewhere, so
+we'd better look for the ruins of that African Troy, in search of the
+ancient reservoirs."
+
+"How far from the shore were the quarters?" asked Charley.
+
+"I don't remember, if I ever knew; but why?"
+
+"Well, it seems to me this island has grown up somewhat as the hair on
+your head does, in a shock. The large trees, as nearly as I can make
+out, think six feet or so to be a proper interval between themselves,
+and the small trees have disposed themselves to the best of their
+ability between the big ones; then all kinds of vines have grown up
+among the big and little trees, as if to make a sort of shrimp-net of
+the woods, and cane has grown up just to occupy any vacant spaces that
+might be left. It occurs to me that if we're to hunt anywhere except
+along shore for the old quarters, we'd best make up our minds to clear
+the island as we go."
+
+"I say, Charley," said Jack, "if you were obliged to clear an acre of
+this growth with your own hands what would you do first?"
+
+"I'd get a good axe, a grubbing hoe, some matches, and kindling wood;
+then I'd take a good look at the thicket; and then I'd take a long, long
+rest."
+
+"Yes, I suppose you'd need it. But that isn't what I meant. Never mind
+that, however. Ned, I don't see why this isn't as good a place as any
+for our camp. There's a sort of bluff here, and we can clear away a
+place for our hut and get the hut built with less labor than it would
+take to find traces of negro quarters that were destroyed twelve or
+fifteen years ago."
+
+"Yes, but how about water?"
+
+"Well, I don't think it likely that we'd find any visible remains of a
+well in the other place, and if we did we'd have to dig it all out
+again. Why not dig here?"
+
+After some discussion, and the examination of the shore for a short
+distance in each direction, this suggestion was adopted. The building of
+a shelter was easy work. It was necessary only to erect a framework of
+poles, to cut bushes and place them against the sides for walls, and to
+cover the whole with palmete leaves--that is to say, with the leaves of
+a species of dwarf palm which grows in that region in abundance. These
+leaves are known to persons at the North only in the form of palm-leaf
+fans. On the coast of South Carolina they grow in all the swamps and
+woodlands.
+
+A little labor made a bunk for the boys to sleep upon, and while Ned and
+Charley filled it with long gray Spanish moss, Jack got dinner ready,
+first rowing out from shore and catching fish enough for that meal while
+his companions finished the house.
+
+"Now," said Jack, when dinner was over and the boys had stretched
+themselves out for a rest, "it's nearly sunset, and we're all tired.
+We've got the best part of two kegs of water left, so I move that we
+don't begin digging our well till morning."
+
+"Agreed," said the other boys, glad enough to be idle.
+
+"Now, I've got something I want you to tell me about," said Jack. "Two
+things, in fact." With that, he went to the boat and looked about.
+Presently he came back and said:
+
+"One of 'em's dried up. Here's the other."
+
+He handed Ned a queer-looking fish, almost black, about eight inches
+long, very slender, and very singularly shaped.
+
+"See," he said; "its jaw protrudes in so queer a way that I can't make
+out which side of the creature is top and which bottom. Turn either side
+you please up, and it looks as if you ought to turn the other up
+instead; and then the thing has a sort of match-lighter on top of his
+head, or on the bottom--I don't know which it is. Look."
+
+He pointed to the creature's head. There was a flat, oval figure there,
+made by a ridge in the skin, and the flat space enclosed within this
+oval line was crossed diagonally by other ridges, arranged with perfect
+regularity. The whole looked something like the figure on the opposite
+page.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Now, what I want to know," said Jack, "is what sort of fish this is,
+which side of him belongs on top, and what use he makes of this
+match-lighter."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't help you much," said Ned. "A year ago I would have
+told you at once that the fish is a shark's pilot, so called because he
+follows ships as sharks do, and the sailors think he acts as a pilot for
+the sharks. But now I don't know what to call it."
+
+"Why not?" asked Charley.
+
+"Because I don't know. I've been reading up in the cyclopædias and
+natural histories and ichthyologies about our fishes down here, and have
+found out that whatever I know isn't so."
+
+"Why, how's that?"
+
+"Well, take the whiting, for example. When I began reading up to see if
+there was any sort of cousinship between him and the dolphin, I soon
+found that the whiting isn't a whiting at all, but I couldn't find out
+any thing else about him. The whiting described in the books is a sort
+of codfish's cousin, and he lives only at the North. Neither the
+pictures nor the descriptions of him at all resemble our whiting, so I
+don't know what sort of fish our whiting is. I only know that he isn't a
+whiting, and isn't the remotest relation to the dolphin, because he is a
+fish and has scales, while the dolphin is a cetacean."
+
+"What's a cetacean?" asked Charley.
+
+"A vertebrated, mammiferous marine animal."
+
+"Well; go on; English all that."
+
+"Well, whales, dolphins narwhals, and porpoises are the principal
+cetaceans. They are not fish, but marine animals, and they suckle their
+young."
+
+"Well, that's news to me," said Charley.
+
+"Now, then," said Jack, "if you two have finished your little side
+discussion, suppose we come back to the subject in hand. What do you
+know, Ned, about this fish that I have in my hand, and why don't you
+call him a shark's pilot now, as you say you did a year ago?"
+
+"Why, because the books treat me the same way in his case that they do
+in the whiting's. They describe a shark's pilot which is as different
+from this as a whale is from a heifer calf, and so I don't know what to
+call this fellow. Did he make a fight when you caught him?"
+
+"Indeed he did. I was sure I had a twenty-pound something or other on my
+hook, and when I pulled up this insignificant little creature, with the
+match box on his head, I was disgusted. I looked at him to see if he
+hadn't a steam-engine somewhere about him, because he pulled so hard,
+and that's what made me observe his match box and his curious
+up-side-down-itiveness."
+
+"I say, Ned," said Charley, "why is it that our Southern fishes are so
+neglected in the books?"
+
+"Well, I've asked myself that question, and the only answer I can think
+of is this: in the first place, there is no great commercial interest in
+fishing here as there is at the North; and then the natural history
+books and the cyclopædias are all written at the North or in Europe, and
+so there are thousands of curious fish down here which are not
+mentioned. There's the pin-cushion fish, for example. I can't find a
+trace of that curious creature in any of the books."
+
+"What sort of thing is a pin-cushion fish?" asked Jack.
+
+"He's simply a hollow sphere, a globular bag about twice the size of a
+walnut, and as round as a base ball."
+
+"Half transparent, is he? Red, shaded off into white? with water inside
+of him, and pimples, like pin-heads, all over him, and eyes and mouth
+right on his fair rotundity, making him look like a picture of the full
+moon made into a human face?" asked Jack eagerly.
+
+"Yes, that's the pin-cushion fish."
+
+"I thought so. That's my other one," said Jack.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Ned.
+
+"Why, that's the other thing I had to show you, but couldn't find. I
+caught him with the cast net."
+
+"And kept him to show to me?" asked Ned.
+
+"Yes, but he disappeared."
+
+"Of course he did. He spat himself away."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Why, if you take a pin-cushion fish out of the water, and put him down
+on a board, he'll sit there looking like a judge for a little while;
+then he'll begin to spit, and when he spits all the water out, there's
+nothing left of him except a small lump of jelly. They're very curious
+things. I wish we had a good popular book about our Southern fishes and
+the curious things that live in the water here on the coast."
+
+"Don't you suppose these things are represented at all in scientific
+books?" asked Jack.
+
+"I suppose that many of them are, but many of them are not, and those
+that are described, are described by names that we know nothing about,
+and so only a naturalist could find the descriptions or recognize them
+when found. With all Northern fishes that are familiarly known, the case
+is different. If a Northern boy wants to find out more than he knows
+already about a codfish, he looks for the information under the familiar
+name 'Codfish,' and finds it there. He does not need to know in advance
+that the cod is a fish of the _Gadus_ family, and the _Morrhua vulgaris_
+species. So, when he wants to know about the whiting that he is familiar
+with, he finds the information under the name whiting; but the
+scientific men who wrote the books, however much they may know about the
+fish that we call whiting, do not know, I suppose, that it is anywhere
+called whiting, and so they don't put the information about it under
+that head. They only come down South as far as New Jersey, and tell
+about a species of fish which is there called whiting, though it isn't
+the real whiting. If they had known that still another and a very
+different fish goes by that name down here, they would have told us
+about that too, in the same way."
+
+"What's the remedy?" asked Charley.
+
+"For you, or Jack, or me," answered Ned, "to study science, and to make
+a specialty of our Southern fishes. When we do that and give the world
+all the information we can get by really intelligent observation, all
+the scientific writers will welcome the addition made to the general
+store of knowledge. That is the way it has all been found out."
+
+"Why can't we begin now?"
+
+"Because we haven't learned how to observe. We don't know enough of
+general principles to be able to understand what we see. Let's form
+habits of observation, and let's study science systematically; after
+that we can observe intelligently, and make a real contribution to
+knowledge."
+
+"You're not going to write your book on the Marine Fauna of the Southern
+States to-night, are you?" asked Jack.
+
+"No, certainly not," said Ned, with a laugh at his own enthusiasm.
+
+"Then let's go to bed; I'm sleepy," said Jack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+AN ENEMY IN THE CAMP.
+
+
+The three tired boys went to sleep easily enough, and the snoring inside
+their hut gave fair promise of a late waking the next day. But before
+long Jack became restless in his sleep, and began to toss about a good
+deal. Charley seemed to catch his restlessness, and presently he sat up
+in the bunk and began to slap himself. This thoroughly aroused him, and
+as Jack and Ned were tossing about uneasily he had no scruple in
+speaking to them.
+
+"I say, fellows, we're attacked."
+
+"What's the matter?" muttered Ned, at the same time beginning to rub
+himself vigorously, first on one part of the body, then on another.
+
+"Mosquitoes," said Jack, violently rubbing his scalp.
+
+"Worse than mosquitoes," said Charley; "they feel more like yellow
+jackets or hornets, I should say; and they're inside our clothes too."
+
+"Whew!" exclaimed Ned, leaping out of the bunk, "I didn't think of
+that."
+
+"What is it?" asked both the other boys in a breath.
+
+"A swarm of sand-flies."
+
+"Sand-flies! what are they?" asked Jack.
+
+"Wait, and I'll show you," replied Ned, going out and stirring up the
+fire so as to make a light. Meantime the boys rubbed and writhed and
+turned themselves about in something like agony, for, though they
+suffered no severe pain at any one spot, their whole bodies seemed to be
+covered with red pepper. Every inch of their skins was inflamed, and the
+more they rubbed the worse the irritation became.
+
+When Ned had made a bright light, he showed his companions what their
+tormentors were. Jack and Charley saw some very minute flying
+insects--true flies indeed--not much larger than the points of pins.
+There were millions of the creatures. The whole air seemed full of them
+indeed, and wherever one rested for a moment upon the skin of its
+victim, there was at once a pricking sensation, followed by the
+intolerable burning and irritation already mentioned.
+
+Charley was at first incredulous. "You don't mean to tell me," he said,
+"that those little gnats have done all this."
+
+"Yes, I do," answered Ned, "and more than that, I have known them to
+kill a horse, tormenting him to death in a few hours. They'll get under
+a horse's hair by millions and literally cover him, until you can see
+the hair move with them. But they are not gnats."
+
+"But, see here, Ned," said Jack; "when I barely touch one of the
+creatures, it not only kills him but distributes him pretty evenly over
+the surrounding surface. They haven't strength enough to hang together."
+
+"Yes, I know," replied Ned; "what of that?"
+
+"Why, how can such things bite so? and especially how can they force
+their way through our blankets and clothes? I should think they'd tear
+themselves to pieces in the attempt."
+
+"So should I, if I didn't know better; but as a matter of fact they do
+manage to get through without dulling their teeth, as we have proof."
+
+"Have the creatures teeth?" asked Charley.
+
+"No, of course not; but they have a sort of rasping apparatus which is
+just as bad. They have an acrid kind of saliva too, which they put into
+the wounds they make, and that is what smarts so. But come, this won't
+do. We must make a good smudge."
+
+"What's a smudge?" asked Jack.
+
+"I'll show you presently," answered Ned, while he began to build a small
+fire immediately in front of the tent. When it had burned a little, he
+smothered it with damp leaves and moss, so that it gave off a dense
+cloud of smoke which quickly filled the hut.
+
+"Now the tent will soon be clear of them," said Ned.
+
+"Sand-flies object to smoke, I suppose," said Jack.
+
+"Very much indeed," answered Ned, "and it is customary here on the coast
+to have a pair of smudge boxes in front of every house."
+
+"I don't blame them for objecting," grumbled Charley, coughing and
+wiping his smoke-inflamed eyes; "I can't say that I find smoke the most
+delightful atmosphere myself. But what is a 'smudge box,' Ned?"
+
+"Simply a shallow box of earth set upon a post, to build a smudge upon."
+
+"I say, Ned," asked Jack, "what do you mean by saying that sand-flies
+aren't gnats?"
+
+"Simply that they aren't," said Ned.
+
+"What are they, then?"
+
+"Flies."
+
+"Well, what is a small fly but a gnat?"
+
+"And what is a gnat but a small fly?" added Charley.
+
+"The two are not at all the same thing," answered Ned. "That is a
+popular mistake. I have heard people say they could stand mosquitoes,
+but couldn't endure gnats; and yet the mosquito is a gnat, and what
+these people call gnats are not gnats at all, but simply small flies."
+
+"What constitutes the exact difference?"
+
+"The shape of the body. All flies are two-winged insects, and gnats are
+flies in that sense, of course; but gnats are those flies that have long
+bodies behind their wings, to balance themselves with. Mosquitoes are
+our best example of them. These sand flies, you see, have very short
+bodies."
+
+"Yes, but very long bills, I fancy," said Charley.
+
+"Well," said Jack, "all that is news to me."
+
+"I suppose it is. Most people think a whale is a fish, too, but for all
+that it is nothing of the kind. What are you doing, Charley?"
+
+"Tossing up heads or tails for it," answered Charley, who had left the
+tent and gone to the large fire.
+
+"Tossing up for what?"
+
+"To determine the method and manner of my death," answered Charley, with
+profound gravity. "If I stay in the hut I shall die of suffocation in
+the smoke, and if I stay out here the sand flies will kill me. I can't
+quite make up my mind which death I prefer, so I'm tossing up for it."
+
+"Good! there's a breeze," said Ned; "if it rises it'll relieve you of
+the necessity of choosing."
+
+"How? By blowing the smoke away, and so giving the sand flies a fair
+field?"
+
+"No; by blowing the sand flies away; they can't stand much of a breeze.
+It is coming up, too, and we shall get some sleep after all."
+
+The breeze did indeed rise after a time, but the dawn was almost upon
+them before the boys really slept again, so severely were their skins
+irritated by their small enemies.
+
+They had learned a lesson, however, and during the rest of their stay on
+the island they never neglected to make a smudge in front of the hut
+before attempting to sleep. It was not often that the sand flies
+appeared in such numbers as on this night, and hence it was not often
+necessary to fill the tent too full of smoke for comfort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE BEGINNING AND END OF A VOYAGE.
+
+
+The first care of the boys the next morning was to dig their well. This
+was a comparatively trifling task, as they had only to dig four or five
+feet through soft alluvial soil and sand. Instead of making
+perpendicular sides to their well, they dug it out in the shape of a
+bowl, so that they could walk down to the water and dip it up as they
+needed it.
+
+Having a hut to live in and a well from which to get fresh water, they
+were now free to begin the sport for which they had come to the island.
+They went fishing first, of course, that being the obvious thing to do,
+but after a few hours of this the tide became too full, and the fish
+ceased to bite satisfactorily.
+
+"Let's crusoe a little," said Jack, winding up his line.
+
+"In what particular way?" asked Ned.
+
+"Why, let's sail around our domain and see how the island looks on its
+other sides. Perhaps we may discover the savages, or find some game."
+
+"A good idea; but we must go back to camp first, to leave our fish and
+get the gun and the sail; and while we're there we'd better get some
+dinner."
+
+So said, so done. Dinner was very hastily dispatched, as the boys were
+anxious to get off, in order that the circuit of the island might be
+completed before night.
+
+"It looks like rain," said Ned, as he shook out the sail, "but we don't
+mind a wetting."
+
+There was a good breeze, and the boat bounded away, rocking a good deal,
+for the wind had been blowing all day, and there was more sea on than
+was usual in those quiet waters. Ned let the centre-board down, which
+steadied the boat somewhat, and enabled her to carry her sail without
+danger. The plan was to coast along about half a mile off shore in order
+that the island might be seen to good advantage; but as the eastern
+shore was reached the sea became heavier, and the roar of the surf on
+shore warned Ned of broad sands upon that side.
+
+"I've got to make more offing here," he said.
+
+"What do you mean by that? turn it into English," said Charley Black,
+who persistently refused to understand any thing that sounded like a
+nautical term.
+
+"Well, I mean I've got to sail farther away from the shore."
+
+"'Cause why?" asked Jack.
+
+"Because of two things," replied Ned. "In the first place the sea comes
+in between those two islands over there, and has a fair sweep at about
+half a mile of our island's coast, and so for the next half mile we
+shall have some pretty rough water, and I prefer to be well off shore."
+
+"I should think you'd prefer to be close inshore if there's danger. Then
+if any thing happens we can land."
+
+"That's all you know about it," said Ned. "I don't think there's the
+least danger, so long as we keep off shore, because this boat, with her
+centre-board down, is seaworthy; but as she isn't beach-worthy--and no
+vessel is that--I don't want to get her upon a beach. That brings me to
+my second reason. I want to take a good offing, because by the way the
+surf roars here, and by the look of it, I judge that there's a long
+sandy beach running out from this part of the island, and I don't want
+to risk getting into too shallow water."
+
+"But why couldn't we land if there were danger?" asked Jack Farnsworth.
+"If I had the helm that would be the first thing I'd try to do."
+
+"So should I if I had a harbor to run into," replied Ned. "But don't you
+see that if we ran upon a sandy beach when there was a sea on, we should
+soon come to a place where there wouldn't be water enough except as a
+wave came in? Then the boat would be lifted up by every wave, and
+suddenly dropped upon the hard sand, and I can tell you she wouldn't
+stand much of that. Did you never notice that nearly all shipwrecks
+occur along shore?"
+
+"Yes, that's true," replied Jack. "Ships that come to grief nearly
+always run on breakers or something; but I never thought of it before."
+
+By this time Ned had secured at least a mile of offing but the sea grew
+every moment heavier. The wind had risen to half a gale, and in spite
+of the close reefing of the sail the boat lay far over and Ned directed
+his companions to "trim ship" by sitting upon the gunwale.
+
+Jack Farnsworth soon discovered that Ned was becoming anxious. He
+quietly said:
+
+"You suspect danger, Ned?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied Ned, "at least I think not."
+
+"Yes you do. I see it in your face. Now I want to say at once that
+whatever the danger is, we can only increase it by losing our wits. The
+important thing is for you to keep perfectly cool, because you know more
+than we do about sailing. Then you can tell us what to do, if there's
+any thing."
+
+"Thank you," said Ned; "the fact is this: I think by the look of the
+horizon out there at sea, that we are likely to have a squall--that is,
+a sudden and very violent blow, added to the steadier wind that blows
+now. If we can run across this open space before it comes, we'll be all
+right under the lee of that island over there, and if no squall comes
+we're safe enough even here, because the boat is seaworthy. But a
+knock-over squall might capsize us. It's coming, too--let go the
+sheet--cut it--any thing!"
+
+As he said, or rather shouted this, Ned tried to head the boat to the
+wind, while Jack and Charley let go the sheet, and thus set the sail
+free. If the squall had struck the boat with the sheet fastened and the
+sail thus held in position, the _Red Bird_ would have capsized
+instantly; but with the sail swinging freely, less resistance was
+offered, and Ned expected in this way to avoid a catastrophe. He headed
+the boat to the wind, which was the best thing to do.
+
+The squall struck just as the sail swung free, but before the _Red Bird_
+could be brought completely around.
+
+It seemed to the boys that the boat had been struck violently by a solid
+ball of some kind, so sharply did the squall come upon it. Having her
+head almost to the wind, she reared like a horse, swung around, and very
+nearly rolled over, but she did not quite capsize. The mast, however,
+snapped short off, and the sail fell over into the water, being held
+fast to the boat only by the guys.
+
+"Cut the guys, Jack," cried Ned, "or that sail will swamp us! There! now
+all sit down in the bottom of the boat; no, no, Charley, not on the
+thwart, but on the bottom!"
+
+Ned had to shriek these orders to be heard above the roar of the squall,
+which had not yet subsided. He knew that the immediate danger now was
+that the boat might turn over, and to prevent this, he ordered his
+companions to sit upon the bottom, as he himself did, in order that
+their weight might be where it would best serve as ballast.
+
+This brought the three very nearly together, so that they could speak to
+each other without shouting quite at the top of their voices.
+
+"Well, Ned?" said Charley Black.
+
+"Well," replied Ned, "we shan't capsize now. That danger is over; but
+there's another before us that is just as bad."
+
+"What is it?" asked Charley.
+
+"And what shall we do toward meeting it?" asked Jack, whose superb
+calmness and manly resolution to look things in the face and to make
+fight against danger won Ned's heart.
+
+"We're being driven at railroad speed upon the beach," answered Ned,
+"and we'll strike pretty soon. We've already lost the oars, and we
+couldn't use them if we had them in this sea; so we have nothing to do
+but wait. When we strike, the boat will be mashed into kindling wood.
+Every thing depends then upon where we strike. If it is far from shore
+the big waves will beat us to a jelly on the sand. Our only chance will
+be, as soon as the boat strikes, to catch the next wave, swimming with
+it toward shore, taking care, when it recedes, to light on our feet, and
+then run with all our might up the sand. If we can get inside the break
+of the surf before the next wave catches us we're safe; but that's the
+only chance. Every thing depends now on where we strike."
+
+"Boots off," cried Jack; "we may have to swim."
+
+Ned and Charley accepted the suggestion. All now anxiously scanned the
+shore, which seemed to be coming toward them at a tremendous speed.
+Suddenly Ned cried out:
+
+"There's a reef just ahead; when we strike try to cross it into the
+stiller water."
+
+At that moment it seemed as if the sandy reef had suddenly shot up from
+below, striking the bottom of the boat as a trip-hammer might, and
+shivering it into fragments. What had really happened was this: the
+boat, driving forward on the crest of a wave, had been carried to a
+point immediately over the sand ridge or reef, and there suddenly
+dropped by the receding of the wave. It had struck the sandy bottom with
+sufficient violence to crush its sides and bottom into a shapeless mass.
+
+The boys were wellnigh stunned by the blow, but rallying quickly they
+ran forward in water only a few inches deep, and before the next
+incoming wave struck, they had crossed the narrow sand reef, and plunged
+into the deep, but comparatively still water that lay inside. The surf
+was broken, of course, upon the reef, and although the waves passed
+completely over it, their force was expended upon it, so that inside the
+barrier the boys found the water disturbed by nothing more than a swell.
+The distance to the shore was small, and they soon swam it, pulling
+themselves out on the sand, drenched, bare-headed, bootless, and weary
+beyond expression, not so much from exertion as from the strain through
+which their brains and nerves had passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SITUATION.
+
+
+The first thing to be done was to rest. Utterly exhausted, the lads
+dragged themselves a few feet from the water and threw themselves down
+upon the sand, thinking of nothing and caring for nothing except to lie
+still. The squall had passed away as quickly as it had come, and
+although a stiff breeze was still blowing the afternoon sun beating down
+upon them warmed as well as dried them rapidly. Jack Farnsworth was the
+first to recover his wits.
+
+"I say, fellows, this won't do," he said, raising himself to a sitting
+posture. "The day is waning and we've got to get back to our camp before
+night."
+
+Ned and Charley tried to rise. Ned accomplished the feat, but poor
+Charley found it impossible.
+
+"Why, boys," he said, sinking back upon the sand, "I'm all of a tremble;
+I don't know what's the matter."
+
+"Reaction," said Ned.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Why, under all that excitement you kept your strength up by a
+tremendous effort, and now you're paying the bill you owe your nerves."
+
+"But I'm sure I didn't tremble when we were in danger."
+
+"No, because you wouldn't give way then. Your will was master. It
+ordered your nerves to furnish strength enough to keep still, and
+commanded your muscles to do what was necessary to get you safe ashore.
+They obeyed, and now your will is in their debt. It took more than was
+due, and your nerves and muscles have presented their bill. They are
+bullying your will in return for the bullying it gave them a little
+while ago. That's the way my father explained it to me once when I
+trembled after a big scare. Only lie still awhile and you'll come round.
+I was as weak as water five minutes ago, but I'm getting my strength
+back again now."
+
+"'As weak as water,'" said Jack Farnsworth meditatively. "I used to
+think that a good comparison, but I've altered my opinion. Water is the
+strongest thing I know."
+
+"How is that?" asked Ned.
+
+"Why, think how it picked the _Red Bird_ up and flung her down on the
+sand like an angry giant--but with ten thousand times a giant's
+strength! And it picks great ships up in the same way and dashes them to
+pieces as I might do with an egg-shell or a China cup. Water is a giant,
+a demon of angry strength. I shall never think of it again as a thing of
+weakness. It means infinite power to me now."
+
+"Poor old _Red Bird_!" said Ned; "there are her bones!"
+
+There indeed lay what was left of the boat, where it had been drifted
+upon the sands by the swell. The tide, which had now begun to run out,
+had left the wreck "high and dry," and instinctively the boys went to
+look at it, Charley managing now to stagger forward slowly.
+
+The wreck was a mass of timbers, ribs, and planking, looking like a boat
+that has been crushed flat under some enormous weight.
+
+"What kept her from going all to bits?" asked Charley.
+
+"Her copper bolts," answered Ned. "You see, she was particularly well
+built. There wasn't a nail in her. From stem to stern all the fastenings
+were of copper, and copper is so tough that no ordinary wrenching will
+break it. It bends instead. But if we had simply run upon a beach in
+that sea, even copper bolts wouldn't have held the pieces together.
+Every wave would have lifted the wreck up and dashed it down on the sand
+until the planks and ribs were beaten into bits. As it is, the _Red
+Bird_ struck only once. The next wave that came lifted her up and
+carried her clear across the reef into deep water before it dropped her,
+and so she received only that one blow. Once inside the reef, she
+drifted with the swell toward shore. She is an utter wreck though, and
+will never sail again."
+
+There was a melancholy tone in the boy's voice as he said this, for he
+had sailed in this boat many and many a time, and had come to love her
+as if she had been a live thing.
+
+"I'll tell you what, boys," said Jack; "we've got to start toward camp.
+It won't do to be caught out to-night without supper or fire. Weary and
+soaked as we are, we shall be sick if we don't get something to eat and
+a fire to sleep by. Let's get a vine and tie the wreck here so that it
+can't drift away with the next tide, and then be off at once. It's
+nearly sunset."
+
+When the "bones" of the boat were well secured, the boys set out;
+Charley having recovered his strength somewhat, they walked at a good
+pace along the shore, and reached camp just at dark. Building a large
+fire they soon had a hearty supper, with plenty of hot coffee, and when
+supper was done, they gladly put themselves to bed, aching a good deal
+from exhaustion, but really unharmed by their adventure.
+
+Jack was the first to wake the next morning, but he did not get up
+immediately. He lay still, evidently thinking. After a while he arose
+quietly and, before dressing himself, made an examination of the stores
+of food on hand. Finally he roused his companions, and the three took a
+dip into the water.
+
+"Now," said Jack, when all were seated at breakfast, "I want you boys to
+help me think a little, and you, Ned, to answer some questions."
+
+"All right," said Ned, "I'm thinking already."
+
+"What are you thinking?" asked Charley.
+
+"That these fish aren't as fresh as they might be; so I'm going fishing
+before dinner."
+
+"What in?" asked Jack.
+
+"That's a fact," said Ned and Charley in a breath. "We haven't a boat
+now."
+
+"No," said Jack. "We have no boat, and that's what I want to think
+about. How far is it to Bluffton, Ned?"
+
+"About twelve miles."
+
+"Is that the nearest point on the mainland?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then we've got to stay here till we can build a boat with such tools
+and materials as we have, if we can do it at all," said Jack.
+
+"We can't do it," said Ned, with a look of consternation on his face;
+"we lack nearly every thing. We haven't even the plank!"
+
+"Now don't let's become demoralized," said Jack, who, ever since the
+accident of the day before, had been the leading spirit of the party.
+"We must keep our wits about us and lay our plans intelligently. But
+first of all we must look the facts in the face. We are on a deserted
+island twelve miles from the mainland, without a boat. We must stay here
+until we can make arrangements of some kind for getting away, and that
+will be a good deal longer than we thought of staying when we came, for
+I don't suppose you meant it, Ned, when you told Maum Sally that we'd be
+gone a month."
+
+"No, I hadn't a thought of staying more than a few days, or a week at
+most. We didn't bring enough provisions to last for more than a week."
+
+"That is what I was coming to," said Jack. "I've been looking over our
+stores this morning. We've got to face the fact that we haven't nearly
+enough, and we must use what we have judiciously, taking great care to
+add other things as we can. Unluckily we lost our best friend when the
+gun went down in the wreck of the _Red Bird_. We can't hunt, but must
+depend upon other sources of supply. I suppose, Ned, there's very little
+to be done fishing from the shore?"
+
+"Nothing at all, I imagine," replied Ned; "but I may possibly catch a
+few mullets with the cast net. You see mullets run up into little bays
+to feed, and we sometimes go after them with the net, especially at
+night. Then I can catch shrimps and some few crabs, and I suppose we
+shall find an oyster bank somewhere."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "I suppose we can manage somehow to get enough food;
+the trouble will be to get variety enough. Shrimps and crabs and oysters
+and fish are good food, but one doesn't want to make them an exclusive
+diet. For health we must have variety."
+
+"That is true," said Ned, "and our greatest trouble will be about bread.
+We haven't flour or rice or sweet potatoes enough to last more than a
+few days."
+
+"No," said Jack, "and we have nothing to substitute for them. We must
+have everything of the vegetable kind that we can get. Now what is
+there? I don't know, and can't think of a thing."
+
+"There are several things," said Ned, "such as they are."
+
+"Well, we'll hunt for them. What are they?" asked Jack.
+
+"There may possibly be wild sweet potatoes somewhere on the island,
+though that is doubtful. The soft parts of most roots are edible; there
+are plenty of wild grapes in the woods, I suppose, and for a good
+substantial vegetable, we can eat an occasional dish of algæ."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"'What are they,' you should say; noun of the first declension,--alga,
+algæ, algæ, algam, etc.,--so algæ is the nominative plural."
+
+"Oh, stop the declension--we have enough of that at school--and tell us
+what algæ are," said Charley.
+
+"Sea-weeds. There are a great variety of them, and many kinds are eaten
+in different parts of the world. They are all harmless and more or less
+nutritious. We can try the different sorts that come ashore here and use
+the best that we can get."
+
+"Shall we boil them?" asked Jack.
+
+"I don't know. We'll try that and see, at any rate."
+
+"All right. Now we must manage each day to get as much food, of one kind
+and another, as we eat; it won't do to run short and trust to the
+future. We must save our flour and bacon for special occasions and as a
+reserve to fall back upon if at any time the supplies of other food fail
+us. We must keep our coffee, too, for use in case of sickness, or a bad
+drenching in a cold rain. There may be times when we shall need it
+badly, and so we must do without it now. I think we shall get on pretty
+well for several weeks, and by that time I hope we shall be ready to
+leave the island."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Well, I've a plan, but I'm not sure about it yet. I thought of it
+yesterday, just after we came ashore. You two see what you can do toward
+getting some food, while I go off to inspect and lay my plans. When I
+come back I'll tell you about them."
+
+When Jack departed without telling his companions what he meant to do,
+Ned and Charley went up the shore with the cast net, and managed, within
+an hour or two, to secure a good supply of shrimps, one or two mullets,
+and a few oysters, though they discovered no oyster bed, as they had
+expected to do. They hoped to accomplish this by a longer journey along
+the shore, to be made on some other day. Having enough fish and shrimps
+for immediate use, they wished now to see what could be done toward
+securing a supply of vegetable food. They discovered no palmetto trees,
+but gave their attention to the wild grapes, of which there were a good
+many in the woods.
+
+It was well past mid-day when Ned and Charley, loaded with their spoils
+of sea and land, returned to the camp. There they found Jack, sitting on
+a log meditating.
+
+"Boys," he said, "the important thing is not to let any thing discourage
+us. We must keep a stiff upper lip, no matter what happens."
+
+"Yes, certainly," said Charley, "but what's the special occasion of this
+lecture?"
+
+"You are sure that no matter what happens, you'll not give up, or grow
+scared, or get excited in any way?" asked Jack.
+
+"Well, I must say--" began Charley.
+
+"Hush, Charley," said Ned; "something's wrong. Let's hear what Jack has
+to say."
+
+"What is it, Jack? Tell us quick."
+
+"Well, only that we're out of food."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, that some animal or other has robbed us while we were all away
+from camp! Every thing's gone, even to the box of salt and the coffee.
+We haven't a thing to eat except what you've brought with you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PLANS AND DEVICES.
+
+
+To say that the boys were shocked and distressed by their new mishap, is
+very feebly to express their state of mind. There was consternation in
+the camp, from which Jack alone partially escaped. Jack had an
+uncommonly cool head. In ordinary circumstances there was nothing
+whatever to distinguish him from other boys. He rushed into difficulties
+as recklessly as anybody--as he did on the first day when he tried to
+use the cast net,--and joined in all sports and boyish enterprises with
+as little thought as boys usually show. But in real difficulty Jack
+Farnsworth was seen in a new light. He was calm, thoughtful, resolute,
+and full of resource. Ned had his first hint of this during that last
+voyage of the _Red Bird_, and as their difficulties multiplied both Ned
+and Charley learned to look upon Jack as their leader. They turned to
+him now precisely as if he had been much older than themselves, and
+asked:
+
+"What on earth are we to do, Jack?"
+
+"First of all," Jack replied, "we are to keep perfectly cool. Excitement
+will not only keep us from doing the best that we can, but it will
+weaken us and unfit us for work, even if it doesn't bring on actual
+sickness, which it may do. Care killed a cat, you know. We positively
+must not get excited. After all, what occasion for uneasiness is there?
+We are pretty genuine Crusoes now, but we can stand that. We are
+literally wrecked upon a deserted island. We have lost our boat and our
+boots, our hats, our gun and our supply of provisions, and so we are not
+quite so well situated as Robinson Crusoe was; but on the other hand
+we're not going to stay here year after year as he did, and besides
+there are three of us to keep each other company."
+
+"Well, company's good, of course," said Charley Black, "but I'm not so
+sure on the other points."
+
+"How do you mean?" asked Ned.
+
+"I'm not so sure about our getting away sooner than Crusoe did. I don't
+see how we're to get away at all for that matter, but may be somebody
+will rescue us after twenty-eight years or so."
+
+"Well, if they do," said Ned, "won't it be jolly fun to go back to
+school then, with long whiskers, and make old Bingham take us through
+the rest of Cæsar!"
+
+Ned was naturally buoyant in spirits, and the spice of difficulty and
+danger in their situation had now begun to stimulate his gayety instead
+of depressing him. He was of too hopeful a nature to believe that their
+enforced stay upon the island was likely to be very greatly prolonged,
+although, if put to the proof, he had no more notion than Charley Black
+had, of a possible means of escape.
+
+"Yes," answered Jack Farnsworth, "and after that length of time we'll
+have a lot of things to learn besides Latin. We'll have to study
+geography all over again to find out how many States there are in the
+Union, and whether France has swallowed Germany, or Russia has conquered
+England and moved her capital to London. Then, again, Ned, your science
+will be out of date, and you won't dare to mention oxygen even, for fear
+that somebody has found long ago that there isn't any such thing as
+oxygen. We'll be regular Rip Van Winkles. Who knows? Perhaps we shall
+find the United States turned into an empire, and steam-engines
+forgotten, and electricity, or something that we've never heard of,
+doing the world's work. On the whole, I think if we stay here
+twenty-eight years, it will be better not to leave the island at all."
+
+The banter between Ned and Jack was kept up in this way for some time,
+Ned talking for fun merely, while Jack talked for the purpose of
+overcoming poor Charley's evident depression of spirits. Finally Jack
+said:
+
+"But we're not going to be Rip Van Winkles or even Crusoes very long.
+We'll have our lark out and then go back home in time for school--say
+about three weeks or a month hence, keeping Ned's appointment with Maum
+Sally."
+
+"But how on earth are we to get back?" asked Charley.
+
+"In a boat, to be sure; we can't walk twelve miles on the water,"
+answered Jack, "particularly now that we're barefooted. We'd get our
+feet wet, without a doubt."
+
+"Where are we to get a boat?"
+
+"Well, that is what I've been thinking about," said Jack, "and I think
+I've worked the problem out."
+
+"All right, what's the answer?" asked Ned.
+
+"Why, that we must rebuild the _Red Bird_."
+
+"How can we? She is mashed into kindling wood," said Charley.
+
+"No, not quite," answered Jack. "She is badly mashed, certainly, but
+it's simply mashing. I have been to look at her. She lies there as flat
+as if a steam-ship had sat down upon her, but I have carefully examined
+every stick of her timber, and while the _Red Bird_ is no more a boat
+than a lumber pile is a house, still she is a pretty good pile of
+lumber. Comparatively few of her planks are badly split or broken, while
+her ribs seem to be broken only in one or two places each. After
+examining her very carefully I am satisfied that her timbers will
+furnish us enough material for a new boat. We must build a smaller boat
+out of her bones--particularly a shorter boat. She was twenty-four feet
+long, and by shortening her in the middle--that is, by leaving out the
+middle ribs--we shall have enough planking to make a new boat. Patching
+up the ribs will be the most difficult job, but I think we can manage
+it. Most of the planks are broken in two, but we can join the ends on
+ribs, and, if we are patient, we can make a pretty good boat. Patience
+is the one thing needful, especially for inexperienced workmen with a
+scanty supply of tools. We must make good joints if we have to work a
+week over the joining of two boards."
+
+"What are we to do for nails?" asked Ned; "we haven't more than a pound
+or two here."
+
+"We haven't a single nail," said Jack; "the wild animal, whatever it
+was, that robbed us, seems to have had a very miscellaneous appetite. It
+not only took our flour and bacon, our salt and our coffee and sugar; it
+seems to have had an appetite for nails and blankets too. At any rate,
+it stole them all, but luckily it didn't find the tools, because you had
+the hatchet with you, and I had the axe."
+
+"The mischief!" exclaimed Ned.
+
+"Yes, it's mischief enough for that matter, but it might have been
+worse. I suppose some rascals landed here while we were away and robbed
+us. Of course it couldn't have been an animal, although that was my
+first thought when I found the provisions gone. Whoever it was he isn't
+likely to come again, but we must watch our camp now, and particularly
+we must take care of our tools."
+
+"But you haven't answered my question about nails," said Ned.
+
+"We must make them of the _Red Bird's_ copper bolts," answered Jack;
+"and if we run short we can use wooden pins; but I think there is an
+abundance of the copper. Luckily the anchor came ashore entangled in the
+wreck, and that will serve us for an anvil. We can hammer the bolts into
+nails, using the hatchet for a hammer. It will be slow work, because
+while the hatchet is in use making nails we can't use it in building the
+boat."
+
+"I'll tell you what," said Charley, whose spirits began now to revive;
+"we'll work hard of nights making nails, and have them ready for the
+next day."
+
+"Yes, and we shan't want any nails for a day or two, while we're making
+preparations to begin, and so we can get a good supply in advance."
+
+"That's so," said Ned; "but do you know we're wasting precious time? It
+is nearly sundown, and we have a lot to do before we go to bed. We
+haven't thought of dinner yet, and we can't now till after our work is
+done. We must bring the wreck around here to-night. The fellow that
+robbed our camp was probably some negro squatter from some of the
+islands around us, and if he got sight of the wreck on his way back, he
+is sure to come over and carry away all that is valuable of the _Red
+Bird's_ bones to-night. We must get ahead of him, and bring the wreck
+around to the camp the first thing we do."
+
+This suggestion commended itself to Ned's companions, and the boys set
+off at once, taking the axe and hatchet with them.
+
+When they arrived at the wreck the tide was very nearly full, so that
+there was not much difficulty in getting the remains of the _Red Bird_
+afloat. It was a mere raft of plank and timbers, of course, which must
+be dragged through the water along the shore by means of the anchor rope
+and some wild vines cut in the woods. For a time the still incoming tide
+was in their favor, and they travelled the first half mile pretty
+rapidly. When the tide turned, however, the labor became very severe,
+and it was ten o'clock at night when the wreck of the _Red Bird_ was
+safely landed at the camp. The boys were exhausted with work, and very
+hungry. Ned stirred up the fire and put on a kettle of salt water, into
+which, as soon as it boiled, he poured a quart or two of shrimps.
+
+"We'll make a shrimp dinner to-night," he said, "and that will leave us
+the mullets and wild grapes for breakfast."
+
+"All right," answered Jack; "I'm hungry enough not to care for variety
+to-night; speed is the word just now."
+
+Dinner over, the boys had still to collect a large mass of the long gray
+moss to serve instead of the stolen blankets, so that it was quite
+midnight when they finally got to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SOME OF NED'S SCIENCE.
+
+
+"How shall we cook our fish, Ned?" asked Charley, the next morning. He
+had already thrown wood upon the embers when Ned and Jack came out of
+the hut.
+
+"We must roast them," said Ned, "now that we have no bacon to fry them
+with. We can broil sometimes and roast sometimes, for variety. Without
+butter broiled fish are rather dry. I'll be cook this morning, and show
+you how to roast small fish."
+
+With that he went to the beach and walked along the water's edge till he
+found a bunch of clean, wet sea-weed. Returning to the fire, he
+carefully wrapped the mullets in this, and placed them in the hot ashes,
+covering them with live coals to a depth of several inches. Half an hour
+later he took them carefully out of their wrappings, and placed them on
+the log that did duty for a table.
+
+The fish were beautifully done, and looked as tempting as possible, but,
+upon tasting them, a look of consternation came over Jack's countenance.
+
+"I never thought of that," said Jack, "but we are out of salt! What
+shall we do? We can't live altogether on shrimps and oysters; and fish
+without salt is a difficult dish to eat."
+
+"We must make some salt," said Ned.
+
+"Out of the sea-water?" asked Charley.
+
+"Yes. It is slow work, and without clarifying materials we'll get a
+rather black product, but it will be salt for all that."
+
+"What will make it black?" asked Jack.
+
+"Impurities. The sea-water is filled with various things--common salt,
+mostly, of course, but there are Glauber's salts, Epsom salts, magnesia,
+and many other things, including salts of silver and iron. In making
+salt out of sea-water, these impurities must be got rid of, or the salt
+will be of a dirty brownish color. We can't clarify it, but we can use
+it very well for all our purposes. We'll have to put up with a poor
+breakfast, but we'll do better by night. I'll start our salt-works
+immediately after breakfast, and then I'll leave Charley in charge of
+the business, because I have an idea of my own that I want to carry out.
+We must devote ourselves to-day exclusively to the business of getting
+food, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, that is the first thing to be done. We are at the starvation point
+and must get something to eat before we begin on the boat. What is the
+plan that you speak of?"
+
+"I shan't tell you, because it may come to nothing, though I'm hopeful."
+
+"All right, I hope it will turn out well. Meantime, I'll take the cast
+net and get some shrimps and possibly some fish, and then if I had any
+thing to bait with, I would set some rabbit traps or something of that
+sort. But I haven't, and so I can't. Charley can carry on the salt-works
+while you do whatever it is you mean to do."
+
+The salt-works consisted of nothing more than the kettle. Filling this
+with clear sea-water, Ned set it to boil, saying:
+
+"Now, Charley, as it boils down add more water, and toward night we can
+stop adding water and let the salt settle. It will begin to settle
+before that time, and when it does you can dip the wet salt up from the
+bottom and spread it out on a plank to dry."
+
+"All right. I'll make a dipper out of a tin cup by fastening a stick to
+it for a handle. But what makes the salt settle?"
+
+"Why, don't you see? You can only dissolve a certain amount of salt in a
+certain amount of water; if you put more in it sinks to the bottom,
+being heavier than water, and stays there. When a liquid has as much of
+any thing dissolved in it as it can hold, it is said to be saturated; we
+call it a saturated solution. Now when you boil sea-water it evaporates,
+and the quantity of water steadily decreases. After awhile so much of
+the water is evaporated that we have a saturated solution, and then if
+you evaporate half a pint more of it the salt that a half pint of water
+can hold in solution must settle to the bottom. It is a curious fact
+that water which is saturated with one substance, so that it can not
+hold any more of it, is still capable of dissolving other substances and
+holding them in solution. Sometimes, in making salt, men take advantage
+of that fact."
+
+"How?" asked Jack, who had become interested in Ned's explanation.
+
+"Why, by washing out the impurities of the salt with salt water. Having
+a quantity of impure salt they put it into a funnel-shaped vessel with a
+small hole in the bottom; then they take clear water and pure salt and
+make a saturated solution of that; this water cannot dissolve any more
+salt, but it is still capable of dissolving the other substances which
+constitute impurities; so it is poured into the vessel that contains the
+impure salt, and as it passes through it dissolves and carries off the
+impurities, but doesn't dissolve any of the salt."
+
+"Why can't we purify our salt in that way?" asked Charley.
+
+"Because we have no pure salt with which to make the solution."
+
+"That's so, but I didn't think of it. I wish I knew as much as you do
+about such things."
+
+"I don't know much," answered Ned. "I have always been curious to know
+facts of the sort, and my father has encouraged me to find them out. I
+ask questions and read what books I can on such subjects; but I learn
+most by looking and thinking for myself. Still I know very little about
+scientific matters; really I do. But we're wasting time; I must be off
+and so must you, Jack. Keep the salt kettle boiling, Charley, and don't
+forget to add water to it from time to time. When you pour cold water in
+you can skim the scum off, and in that way you'll get rid of a good deal
+of impurity."
+
+With that the boys separated. Jack went down along the shore, with the
+cast-net in his hand; while Ned struck off into the woods with the
+coffee-pot, which, now that the boys had no coffee, was no longer in use
+at camp.
+
+Jack returned about noon, bringing back a fine lot of shrimps, half a
+dozen fish, a few crabs, and some oysters, together with the news that
+he had discovered a large oyster bank which could be reached by wading
+at low tide.
+
+Charley greeted him with a smiling face on which there was a look of
+triumph.
+
+"Look here, Jack," he said, going to a plank upon which there were two
+or three little white heaps; "Ned is out in his science this time; I've
+got beautifully white salt as you see, and not the dark, impure stuff he
+said I would get; but that isn't all; instead of settling to the bottom
+of the kettle, it rises to the top to be skimmed off."
+
+"Yes, I could have told you that," said Ned, who had arrived unobserved.
+"It's a way that it has. Taste your salt, Charley."
+
+Charley did so, looked puzzled, and then turned to Ned.
+
+"What is it, old fellow?" he asked.
+
+"Why, beautifully white salt to be sure," answered Ned; "isn't that what
+you said it was?"
+
+"Yes, I said that," answered Charley, "but now I know better. It is
+tasteless."
+
+"Magnesia usually is," said Ned.
+
+"Is that magnesia?"
+
+"Yes, in the main. It is mixed a little with other things perhaps, but
+it is mostly magnesia. That is why I told you to skim it off. We don't
+want it in the salt."
+
+"But I haven't any salt," said Charley, "I've filled the kettle up every
+fifteen minutes but no salt has settled yet."
+
+"Your solution isn't saturated yet," said Ned. "This water contains only
+about two per cent of salt, or possibly in its impure state three per
+cent. To make one kettleful of salt we must boil away from thirty to
+fifty kettlefuls of water. The kettle holds two gallons, and so, in
+order to get a pint of salt we must boil away two or three kettlefuls of
+water. You have filled it up enough for to-day; now keep it boiling and
+we'll get a pint or two of salt, before night, and meantime we can pour
+a little of the boiled-down water on our fish for dinner, for I'm
+hungry."
+
+"By the way, Ned," said Jack, "what luck have you had?"
+
+"Good. I've brought back a coffee-pot half full, and have made
+arrangements for more to-morrow."
+
+"Well, I like puzzles and riddles and things of that sort," said Jack,
+"but I hate to wait for 'our next month's number' for the answer. What
+is it you've got in the coffee-pot?"
+
+"Bread," answered Ned, "or a substitute for it. I've been gathering the
+seeds of grasses and weeds."
+
+"Seeds of grasses!" exclaimed Charley; "why, who ever heard of anybody
+eating grass seeds?"
+
+"You've turned sceptic, Charley, since your faith in your beautiful
+white salt received such a shock," said Ned; "but still I think some
+grass seeds are occasionally eaten by men,--wheat, for example, and
+rice and corn."
+
+"That's so," said Charley, abashed; "only I never thought of wheat and
+rice, etc., as grasses. But are wild grass seeds good to eat?"
+
+"Yes, of course. All ordinary grass seeds are composed of substantially
+the same materials, and they are all nutritious. I have gathered about a
+quart, meaning to mash them up and make a sort of bread out of them; but
+there isn't time for that now, so I mean to boil them for dinner. The
+important thing is to have some kind of grain food to eat, and in that
+way we'll get it somewhat as if we had rice."
+
+"That's a capital idea, Ned," said Jack. "Is there plenty of seed to be
+had?"
+
+"Yes, now that I know where it is, though it is very slow work gathering
+such seed. I have only to gather it and winnow it. I can winnow a little
+faster next time, because I shall take something along to winnow upon,
+if it is only a clean handkerchief. I've thought of something else too."
+
+"What is that?" asked Charley.
+
+"Acorns and other nuts. They are rather green yet, but they are
+nutritious, and we can beat them into a palatable bread. Hogs grow fat
+on them, and there is no reason why they should not prove nutritious to
+us. I'm going to find some edible roots, too, if I can."
+
+"What a splendid provider you are, Ned," said Charley, "particularly as
+we have the oysters, shrimps, etc., for a foundation to build upon."
+
+"Well," replied Ned, "do you know I have been thinking that we should
+not starve even if we hadn't the water for a source of supply?"
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"In casting about for a variety of things to eat, I have naturally tried
+to think of every thing that could support life, and have been surprised
+to find how many things there are that can be eaten in extreme cases. If
+we were in real danger of starving we could eat snails and earthworms
+for meat----"
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Charley.
+
+"Well, snails and earthworms are both regarded as delicacies by many
+people in France. They actually have snail farms, where the creatures
+are fattened for market."
+
+"As a business?"
+
+"Yes, as a business. There is a demand for snails at high prices,
+because people who can pay well for them are fond of them. Then we could
+kill a few snakes and lizards here, I suppose. In fact, I killed a snake
+this afternoon, and if I hadn't been afraid of disgusting you fellows, I
+should have brought it home as a valuable contribution to our larder,
+for snakes are uncommonly good eating."
+
+"Did you ever eat one?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes; or at least a part of one. There is no reason why snakes should
+not be eaten, except a groundless prejudice. Their flesh is both good
+and wholesome."
+
+"Hurrah for our scientist!" said Jack. "I begin to see now, that our
+supplies are a good deal greater than I supposed. For my part, I mean to
+have a snake breakfast some of these mornings just for variety's sake.
+Why, we shall begin to live like princes presently."
+
+"Will you really lay aside prejudice, Jack, and eat a well-cooked
+snake?" asked Ned.
+
+"Certainly I will," said Jack.
+
+"And you, Charley?"
+
+"I see no objection, now that I think of it," said Charley.
+
+"Very well; then I'll go for my snake. It isn't a hundred yards away,
+and it will furnish us meat, which is much more strengthening than an
+exclusive diet of fish and such things can be."
+
+The snake--a large one--was brought to camp, skinned, dressed, and
+broiled to a crisp brown on a bed of coals. When done it was appetizing
+both in appearance and in odor, and the boys, who, naturally, were very
+hungry after their scanty breakfast and diligent work, ate it with keen
+relish, eating with it some boiled grass seeds. The only complaint made
+concerning the grass seeds was that there was not half enough of them.
+
+The salt kettle had been filled more frequently than Ned had supposed,
+and the yield for the day was more nearly a quart than a pint.
+
+"Now we are beginning to know how to live," said Jack. "We have only to
+get a good start and keep a fair supply of food ahead. But we must lay
+in a good stock of seeds to-morrow. I'll go with you, Ned, and we'll
+both work at that, while Charley minds camp and makes salt."
+
+"To-morrow will be Sunday," said Charley.
+
+"No it won't; this is Friday," said Jack.
+
+"Let's see," said Ned. "We got to Bluffton on Monday evening, didn't we?
+Well, the next day we went fishing; that was Tuesday. The next day we
+came over here; that was Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, the wreck of
+the _Red Bird_ occurred. Friday we spent in getting food and bringing
+the wreck around here to the camp. That was yesterday, and so to-day is
+Saturday. Lucky that Charley thought of it. We mustn't work to-morrow,
+and so we must catch a lot of shrimps and fish with the net to-night."
+
+The boys worked with the net until nearly midnight, and slept late the
+next morning. They observed Sunday as a day of rest, and rest was a
+thing that they greatly needed just at that time. It was agreed that on
+Monday morning Jack and Ned should go after grass seed, while Charley
+should mind camp, make salt, and use the net.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+JACK'S DISCOVERY.
+
+
+The harvest of seeds from which Ned and Jack were to draw their
+supplies, was found in an abandoned field, half a mile from the camp.
+Here various wild grasses and weeds grew in rank profusion, and had
+already ripened in the sun. Some yielded seeds so small and so few in
+number that it was a waste of time to thresh them; others were richer in
+larger seeds; while many of the weeds, particularly, gave a profuse
+supply of seeds almost as large as grains of wheat, but these were
+mostly worthless.
+
+Ned was the recognized "scientist" of the party, and upon him devolved
+the task and responsibility of determining what kinds of seed to gather
+and what to leave. He was familiar with the ordinary plants of the
+country, and knew which of them were poisonous. It remained only to
+determine whether or not a seed, known to be harmless, was of any value
+as food, and Ned's method of doing this was very simple. He bit the seed
+to discover what he could about its flavor and general character in that
+way; then he split a seed and inspected it. If it seemed to consist
+principally of starch, gluten, and fruity matter, he accepted that kind
+of seed; if it appeared dry, hard, and black upon the inside, he deemed
+it unworthy.
+
+Passing the point at which he had gathered seeds on the day before, Ned
+selected a good spot for a threshing-floor, and said:
+
+"Now, Jack, I'll clear a space here and get ready for threshing; we'll
+get on faster in that way. You go off out there and gather grasses.
+Pretty soon I'll join you, and when we get a supply, we'll thresh
+awhile."
+
+With this the boys separated. Ned worked diligently at his clearing, and
+Jack brought in armfuls of grass.
+
+After awhile Ned finished his task and began to wonder what had became
+of Jack, who had been absent for a considerable time. He called, but
+Jack did not answer. Thinking nothing of the matter he went on with the
+work of gathering grass. Still Jack did not return, and after an hour
+had passed Ned became positively uneasy. He again called aloud, and Jack
+answered, but his voice came from a considerable distance.
+
+Continuing his work Ned waited, and after awhile he heard Jack coming
+through a briar thicket, muttering complaints of some sort with a good
+deal of vigor.
+
+"What's the matter, old fellow?" he asked.
+
+"Matter enough," answered Jack, from the depths of the briar patch in
+which he was completely hidden; "I'm torn to pieces by the briars, and
+by the time I get to you I shan't have enough skin left on me to serve
+for patches."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Ned; "shield your face with your arm and break right
+through. Your clothes are thick and stout."
+
+"Yes," answered Jack, "so they are; but I haven't got them on."
+
+Ned leaped to his feet, for he had been kneeling to arrange the grass
+for threshing. He remembered how rapidly he and his companions had been
+reduced in their possessions, until now they were boatless, bootless,
+hatless, and without regular supplies of food; and so when Jack declared
+that he had no clothes on, Ned at once imagined that some new calamity
+had befallen him.
+
+"What!" he exclaimed. "No clothes! Why, we'll be naked savages before
+another week is out."
+
+"I didn't say I had no clothes," answered Jack, still picking his way
+carefully through the briars. "I only said I had no clothes on, or at
+least none to speak of."
+
+"Well, then, you must be out of your head," answered Ned. "Why don't you
+put them on?"
+
+"Because I can't till we get to camp," and with that Jack made a final
+leap into the open space and stood before his astonished companion. He
+presented a queer appearance. For clothing he had on only his drawers
+and a thin undershirt. These were torn and stained with blood from many
+scratches. Jack's face, too, was a good deal scratched, but there was a
+triumphant look in his eyes which made Ned forget to look at the briar
+wounds. Jack's trowsers, tied at bottom and stuffed full of some heavy
+material, sat astride his neck, looking for all the world like the
+lower half of a very fat boy. His shirt, also well filled, was carried
+in one hand, while his coat, made into a bundle and likewise filled, was
+held in the other.
+
+"What in the name of common-sense have you been stuffing your clothes
+with, Jack?" asked Ned in astonishment.
+
+"Grass seed," answered Jack, throwing his burden on the ground.
+
+"Not much," said Ned; "why it would take both of us a month to gather
+and thresh out that quantity."
+
+"I thought you scientific people always recognized one fact as worth
+more than any number of 'must be's'; here I have the facts--a
+trowsers-full, a shirt-full, and a coat-full,--and yet you argue about
+what must be and what can't be."
+
+"I admit the trowsers and the shirt and the coat, and I see that they
+are full," said Ned; "I only doubt the character of their contents. I
+don't believe you could have gathered such a quantity of grass seed
+within so short a time."
+
+"Not of the kind that grows here, but mine are not of that kind."
+
+"Let me look at them," said Ned.
+
+"Not till we get to camp; I can't open the bags without spilling a lot."
+
+"Well, tell me about it then."
+
+"Well, I was gathering grasses over there by those tall trees, when I
+happened to look away toward the south. There I saw, about half a mile
+away, what looked like a patch of ripe wheat or oats. There were two or
+three acres of it down in a sort of marsh, so I went over there to see
+what it was. I found the little marsh covered thickly with a tall grass
+somewhat like oats, and all had gone to seed. The seeds are about the
+size of grains of wheat, but rather longer, and each grain, when
+threshed out, is covered with a brown husk that clings closely to the
+body of the grain. The seeds themselves are starchy, glutinous, and, if
+I am not mistaken, excellent food. It was too far to call you, so I made
+up my mind I would thresh some of the grass and bring away what I could
+of the result. I filled my shirt, coat, and trowsers, and I should have
+used my drawers in the same way if I could have carried any more. As it
+is, I've a big load."
+
+"I should say so," answered Ned, "and a mighty good load, too, if I'm
+not mistaken."
+
+"Why, what do you suppose it is?"
+
+"Grass seed," answered Ned, "of the kind that we call _rice_."
+
+"But how did it come there?" asked Jack. "Does rice grow wild?"
+
+"Yes, sometimes. When a rice field is allowed to stand too long before
+cutting, the grain drops out of the heads, of course, and the next year
+a fair volunteer crop comes up. In this case, I suppose, the explanation
+is simple. When the island was abandoned during the war, there was
+probably a growing crop of rice in that little swamp. If so, it went to
+seed, and not being harvested, the seed fell to the ground, coming up
+again the next year only to repeat the process year after year. That's
+my explanation at any rate, and the only one I can think of. But come!
+let's go to camp. It isn't worth while now to fool away time over this
+grass. Now that you have found a rice field, we'll eat rice instead, and
+some day soon we'll go there and bring back enough to last us till we
+leave the island."
+
+Upon their arrival at camp the contents of Jack's clothes proved to be,
+as Ned had conjectured, rough rice; that is to say, rice from which the
+outer husks have been removed, leaving only the closely clinging inner
+husk on the grain. The amount secured was sufficient to last the boys
+for a considerable time, and in the absence of bread, it was a thing of
+no little moment to them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AN ANXIOUS NIGHT.
+
+
+Dinner was cooked and eaten as soon as possible after the return of Ned
+and Jack to camp, because all three of the boys were eager to make the
+long-deferred beginning upon the new boat.
+
+"The _Red Bird_ was wrecked last Thursday," said Charley, "and now it is
+Monday, and yet we haven't even begun to get ready to prepare to
+commence to build."
+
+"Yes we have, Charley," said Jack. "We have worked diligently at the
+most important part of the task. We have made first-rate arrangements
+for food, and that is a good beginning. But we'll actually begin on the
+boat itself to-day. By the way, Ned, you're to be the master-builder."
+
+"Well, I don't know about that," said Ned; "you were bragging the other
+day about your mechanical skill, and I'm very modest in that direction.
+I'm actually a clumsy hand with tools."
+
+"No, I didn't brag," said Jack; "I only stated facts. I believe I am a
+better workman with tools than either of you fellows, and for that
+reason I'm willing to take the most difficult jobs on myself, but you
+must be the superintendent."
+
+"I don't see why," said Ned.
+
+"Because, even if you are clumsy with tools, you know more about a boat
+in a minute than Charley and I do in a year, and it's a good rule to put
+each fellow at the thing he can do best."
+
+"All right," said Charley; "I'm the best hand you ever saw at sitting on
+a log and watching you fellows work, so I'll take that for my share."
+
+"No, you won't," said Ned. "If I'm to superintend this job I'll find
+something better than that for you to do. But I say, Jack, it's absurd
+for me to try to tell you how to do things that you can do ten times as
+well as I."
+
+"I don't want you to tell me how to do, but what to do; then we'll all
+do it. I'll take the most difficult parts, and besides that I'll give
+you and Charley some hints about how to do your share, perhaps."
+
+"All right," said Ned, "I'll be superintendent if you wish."
+
+"Very well," said Jack. "Now plan the boat, determine the dimensions,
+and tell us how to begin."
+
+"Well, let me see," said Ned. "The _Red Bird_ was twenty-four feet long
+in the keel--twenty-five feet over all,--and five feet wide amidships.
+We must allow liberally for waste in trying to use the old materials, so
+we'll take off six feet of length, giving the new boat a keel of
+eighteen feet, a total length of nineteen feet, and let the beam width
+take care of itself."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Why, we shorten amidships only; that is to say we omit the six or eight
+ribs that were in the middle of the old boat, and bring the next ribs
+forward and aft to the middle. Whatever width they give will be the
+width of the boat amidships. In that way we shall preserve the old
+proportions, while changing the old dimensions. The new boat will be, in
+shape, precisely what the _Red Bird_ would have been if we had cut out
+six feet of her length amidships, and had then brought the two ends
+together."
+
+"Yes, I see," said Charley. "What is the first thing to be done?"
+
+"To lay a keel," said Ned. "The old keel is broken, so we must have a
+new one. Besides, that was double, for a centre-board, and we'll have to
+build without a centre-board."
+
+"What are the dimensions of the keel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Eighteen feet long, as nearly as we can guess, and about three inches
+by six or seven."
+
+"To be set on edge?"
+
+"Yes, and to project below the bottom. That will give steadiness to the
+boat."
+
+"What is the best timber for the keel?" asked Jack.
+
+"White oak, if we had it, but we haven't. The long-leaf yellow pine is
+very nearly as good, and for our purposes it is really better, because
+we can work it more easily. There's a fine, small, straight tree trunk
+just beyond the camp that will suit us precisely. It has been lying for
+several years apparently, and is well seasoned. We have only to cut it
+off the right length, split off slabs till we get a rude square, and
+then hew it down to the right dimensions with the axe and hatchet. That
+will occupy us for two days at least, so let's get to work."
+
+The event proved that Ned had underestimated the length of time
+necessary for this work. The hard, flinty yellow pine, seasoned as it
+was, was very difficult to work. The axe and hatchet were not very sharp
+at the outset, and before night both were distressingly dull. The next
+day, what edges they had were worn away, and it was difficult to cut
+with them at all. Charley declared that he could do nearly as well with
+his teeth, but he did not try that experiment. There was no grindstone
+in the camp, and none to be had, of course, and so the weary boys had to
+make the best of a bad matter and work on as they could with the dull
+tools.
+
+On Thursday the keel was not yet quite done, and the rice began to show
+the effects of the boys' appetites.
+
+"I say, fellows," said Charley, "one of us must go for a fresh supply of
+rice."
+
+"Yes," said Ned, "it is ripening now, and will all fall if we don't
+secure a good supply. You go, Charley, won't you?"
+
+"Yes. I'm worth less at carpenter's work than either of you, so I'll go.
+Pull off your trowsers, both of you."
+
+"Why, what's--" began Ned.
+
+"Yes, I know," interrupted Charley, "I ought to take a bag, or a sheet,
+or, still better, the spring wagon; but seeing that we haven't any
+wagon, or bag, or sheet, or any thing else to carry rice in, except
+trowsers, I'm going to use trowsers; and remembering the tattered
+condition of Jack's skin after his trowserless stroll through the
+briars, I'm not going to use my own trowsers for a bag. So off with your
+pantaloons, young men, and be quick about it, for I'm going to make two
+trips to-day and bring in rice for the whole season."
+
+Laughing, the boys obeyed, and Charley left them at work in their shirts
+and drawers. He got back to camp at dinner-time, fully loaded. After
+dinner he made his second trip, saying that he would return about
+sunset.
+
+Sunset came at its appointed time, but Charley was not so punctual. It
+grew dark, and still Charley did not appear. Ned and Jack began to grow
+uneasy. They went out into the woods in rear of their camp and called at
+the top of their voices, but received no answer.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Ned," said Jack; "we must build a beacon fire.
+Charley has stayed late to fill his trowser-bags, and has lost his way
+trying to get back."
+
+It was no sooner said than done. Pitch pine was piled on the fire, and a
+blaze made that might have been seen for many miles. The boys shouted
+themselves hoarse too, but got no answer.
+
+After an hour of waiting, Ned said:
+
+"Jack, I'm going over to the rice patch to look for Charley. Something
+serious must have happened. You stay here and keep up a big fire. If I
+need you I'll call at the top of my voice, and you will hear me I
+think."
+
+"But, Ned, it's an awful undertaking to go from here to the rice field
+on such a night. It's as black as pitch, and you are barefooted and
+almost naked; let me go."
+
+"I know all that," said Ned, "but it would be cowardly to abandon
+Charley, and for my life I can't see that you are any better equipped
+for the journey than I am. You're barefooted too, and as nearly naked as
+I am."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," answered Jack, "but I don't mind for myself."
+
+"You stay here, you great big-hearted, generous fellow!" was all that
+Ned said in reply, as he started away.
+
+Both Jack and Ned knew that the journey thus undertaken would be
+attended by no little danger as well as sore discomfort and suffering.
+The deadly moccasin and rattlesnake lurk in the grass and weeds of that
+coast country, and the unshod boy was in peril of their fangs at every
+step. He was too brave a boy, however, to shrink from danger when a real
+duty was to be done, and so he set forth manfully. Taking a stick he
+struck the ground frequently, as a precaution against the danger of
+stepping upon any snake that might be in his path, and more than once he
+heard the venomous creatures hiss angrily before scurrying away.
+
+He pressed forward too eagerly to pay due attention to briars and
+brushwood, and so before he reached the rice swamp his scanty clothing
+was nearly torn from his body and his skin was badly lacerated. His
+coat protected his shoulders and arms, of course, but his legs, hands,
+and face suffered not a little.
+
+Meantime Jack kept up the beacon fire, suffering scarcely less with
+anxiety and impatience than Ned suffered from physical hurts. Poor Jack
+had the hard task of waiting in terror and uncertainty. He imagined all
+manner of evils that might have happened to Charley; then he became
+anxious about Ned. He shuddered to think of the dangers through which
+his companion must be passing. The necessity of inactivity was
+intolerable; Jack could not sit or stand still. He felt that he should
+go mad if he did not keep in motion. He paced up and down by the fire,
+as a caged tiger does. Finally, morbid fancies took possession of him.
+He imagined that he heard Ned groan in the bushes on his left. Then he
+seemed to hear a cry of agony from Charley in the woods on his right.
+Investigation revealed nothing, and Jack returned to his waiting in an
+agony of suspense.
+
+It was after midnight when Ned returned, torn, bleeding, worn out with
+exertion, and very lame from a wound in his foot. He had trodden upon
+some sharp thing, a thorn or sharp spike of wood, which had thrust
+itself deep into the flesh of his heel, and the wound was now badly
+inflamed.
+
+"Thank heaven, you are safe at any rate!" exclaimed Jack fervently. "Did
+you find out any thing about poor Charley?"
+
+"Nothing," answered Ned, returning Jack's warm hand-clasp. "I went to
+the rice field and found the place where he had been threshing, but no
+other trace of him. He must have finished threshing, however, and
+started homeward, as he left no threshed rice there. I could not find a
+trail in the dark, of course, and I can't imagine what has become of
+Charley. I called him repeatedly, and went all around the marsh, but it
+was of no use. Besides, if he were anywhere in that region he would know
+the way home, for I could see not only the light from this fire but the
+blaze itself."
+
+"Well, you stay here now and let me go," said Jack, preparing to set
+out.
+
+"What's the use?" asked Ned. "I tell you I have done all that can be
+done until daylight. If you go you'll only run the risk of laming
+yourself, and then there'll be nobody fit to take up the search when
+morning comes to make it hopeful."
+
+This was so obviously a sensible view of the situation, that Jack was
+forced, though reluctantly, to remain where he was.
+
+Hour after hour the two boys waited and watched, keeping up the beacon
+fire, and occasionally investigating sounds which they heard or thought
+that they heard in the woods and thickets around them. Naturally they
+talked very little. There was nothing to talk of except Charley's
+disappearance, and there was little to be said about that.
+
+It began to rain, slowly at first, and in torrents toward morning, but
+neither boy thought of going into the hut for shelter. Indeed, neither
+boy seemed conscious of the fact that it was raining at all. They were
+aware only of the horrible suspense in which they were passing the hours
+of a night which seemed almost endless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN THE GRAY OF THE MORNING.
+
+
+As the first flush of dawn appeared Ned said: "Jack, we mustn't lose our
+heads. You know what you said after the wreck. You and I have to look
+after Charley to-day, and we may have need of all our wits and all our
+strength; so, for his sake, if not for our own, we must force a full
+breakfast down our throats. It will steady as well as strengthen us. I
+don't want any thing to eat, and I suppose you don't, but we must eat
+for all that. We haven't had a mouthful since noon yesterday, and we'll
+be fit for no exertion if we go on in this way."
+
+"That is true," answered Jack; "we must eat breakfast."
+
+"Very well; then let's be about it, so that we may have it over by the
+time that it is fairly light, and then we'll lose no time in setting
+out."
+
+"You can't leave camp," said Jack; "your foot is awfully swollen and
+your leg too."
+
+"Yes, I know," answered Ned, "but I am going anyhow. We must find
+Charley, and maybe both of us will be needed when we do."
+
+While this discussion was going on the breakfast preparations were
+advancing, and it was not long before the two disconsolate fellows began
+the difficult task of forcing food down their unwilling throats.
+
+"What is our best plan of operations, Jack?" asked Ned.
+
+"I scarcely know. Perhaps we'd best go round the island, one one way and
+the other the other, shouting and looking. Then, if either finds Charley
+and needs assistance the other will of course be there soon afterward."
+
+"Hardly," said Ned. "The island is pretty large, and I suppose it is a
+good many miles around it. Wouldn't it be better to take a direct
+course?"
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why, by going first to the rice swamp. There we shall almost certainly
+be able to find and follow Charley's trail."
+
+"Of course," answered Jack. "What an idiot I was not to think of that
+first! The fact is, I believe last night's anxiety, particularly while
+you were away, was too much for me. I lost my head a little, I think,
+and haven't quite found it again."
+
+"Listen! What's that?" exclaimed Ned, rising to look. As he did so, the
+bushes near the shore on the left of the camp parted, and----
+
+"Bless me! it's Charley!" shouted both boys in a breath.
+
+"Did you think I had run away with your trowsers?" asked the cause of
+all their anxieties, throwing down the two pairs of pantaloons stuffed
+full of wet rice.
+
+"Gracious! Charley, where have you been?"
+
+"We've had an awful night!" exclaimed Ned.
+
+"Do I look as though I had had a particularly pleasant one?" responded
+Charley. "Do my dress and general appearance indicate that I dined last
+evening in the mansions of the great and slept upon a bed of down?"
+
+"Well, no," said Ned, unable as yet to share Charley's cheerfulness of
+mood; "but really, Charley, we have suffered a good deal. You ought to
+have come back to camp."
+
+"Now, look here, fellows," said Charley, more seriously than he had yet
+spoken, "if you think I haven't known by instinct how much you would
+suffer because of my unexplained absence, you do me great injustice. My
+situation through the night has been none of the pleasantest, but the
+worst part of it has been what I have suffered thinking of your anxiety.
+Pray, don't imagine that I'm totally destitute of feeling."
+
+There was a hurt tone in Charley's voice as he said this, to which Ned
+responded at once.
+
+"Forgive me, Charley," he said, holding out his hand, which the other
+took. "I did not mean to reproach you wrongfully. I know your warm heart
+and generous soul."
+
+"Yes," added Jack, "and nothing in the world could have made us so happy
+as your safe return. But tell us what has happened. Where have you
+been?"
+
+"Not a word until food is set before me," said Charley, relapsing into
+his playful mood again. "I am famished."
+
+"All right," said Ned; "we cooked enough to take with us, and we didn't
+eat much, so your breakfast is ready. In fact I begin to be hungry
+myself, now that you've got back in safety."
+
+"So do I," said Jack; "let's begin over again, and all breakfast
+together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CHARLEY BLACK'S ADVENTURES.
+
+
+"Now then," said Jack, when breakfast was fairly begun, "tell us all
+about it, Charley."
+
+"Well," replied Charley, "you know we're Robinson Crusoes."
+
+"Oh! stop your nonsense and tell your story," said Ned, who was wildly
+impatient to hear of Charley's adventures.
+
+"That's just what I am telling," answered Charley. "As I said, we're
+Robinson Crusoes and I've seen the savages."
+
+"What _do_ you mean?" asked Jack.
+
+"Why, Friday, of course, but that's a mistake too. His real name must be
+Thursday, and he isn't tame either. Really I begin to believe Robinson
+Crusoe fibbed."
+
+"Have you gone crazy, Charley, or what is the matter?" asked Ned,
+beginning now to be really alarmed lest his comrade's experience,
+whatever it had been, had unsettled his mind.
+
+"I never was more rational in my life," replied the boy, with a smile;
+"but you won't let me tell my story in my own way. Listen now and don't
+interrupt. You remember how frightened Crusoe was when he discovered the
+footprint in the sand?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"And how he afterward found the savage who made it, and how disturbed he
+was to learn that he was not really monarch of all he surveyed?
+
+"Yes; well?"
+
+"Well, I've been through a similar experience, only more so. This island
+is not uninhabited as we supposed. There are savages on it, and they are
+not tame savages either, like Crusoe's man Friday, but decidedly savage
+savages. My man Thursday is, at any rate. You see I call him Thursday
+because I first saw him yesterday, and that was Thursday. That's the way
+Crusoe hit upon a name for his savage, you remember?"
+
+"Yes, but tell us about it," said Jack.
+
+"Listen, then. You know I went out to the rice patch and brought in one
+load. Then I went for another, and after I filled the trowsers, I
+concluded that I'd walk down toward the shore and return by that route.
+As I went along by the edge of the rice patch about sunset, I saw a
+footprint, just as Crusoe did, but I didn't study it long, for presently
+its owner appeared. He was a big savage, and black as night, and not in
+the least peaceful. Indeed he seemed very angry with me for some reason,
+for he came running toward me, jabbering in his strange language and
+setting his dog on me. I ran as fast as I could toward that piece of
+woods over beyond the rice swamp--more than a mile away from here, you
+remember, and on the other side of the island. I had a good start, but
+it was a close shave. As I approached the woods I picked out the tree I
+meant to climb, and when I got to it I went up faster than I ever
+climbed before, for the big ugly dog was close behind me. He jumped up
+after me, but I drew up my leg and he missed the foot he wanted.
+
+"I was tired, and was awfully out of breath; but I thought I had only to
+wait until the big negro should come up--I could see him coming. Then I
+would argue the matter with him and get him to be reasonable and call
+off his dog. You see I took him for a negro, and didn't suspect that he
+was a savage. I soon found out my mistake, however, for when he came up
+and began swearing at me--I'm sure it was swearing, though, of course, I
+couldn't understand a word of it--I found that he talked Savage and
+didn't understand a word of English.
+
+"I was in a fix. My tree was about a mile and a half from camp, even if
+you measure the distance in a bee line, so there was no use in shouting
+for assistance. There stood the raving savage jabbering at me, and
+threatening me with his club; and, worse still, there stood his dog at
+the foot of the tree waiting for a dish of Charley Black for supper. I
+reasoned with the savage, but he didn't understand me any more than I
+understood him. The more I talked the madder he got. Then I remembered
+having read somewhere something about the 'eloquent language' of
+gestures, signs, and all that, which all human beings are supposed to
+understand, so I tried that awhile. I shrugged my shoulders, waved my
+hands about, motioned to him to call off his dog and go home, and did
+other things of the sort; but it wasn't of the least use. That savage
+persisted in misunderstanding me, and his dog got madder and madder.
+Finally, just to see if the benighted idiot could understand sign
+language at all, I put my thumb to my nose and twiddled my fingers at
+him, at the same time shaking my other fist. He understood that, and
+took further offence at it. In his rage he tried to climb my tree to get
+at me, but he was a rather clumsy climber and made little head-way. When
+he got within reach I struck him a sudden blow with your trowsers, Jack,
+which, being filled chock full of rice, made a pretty good club. He
+dropped like a shot squirrel, and his dog, thinking that I had fallen,
+made a rush for him. For a moment I flattered myself that now I should
+get away while the savage and the dog were explaining matters to each
+other; but in that I was disappointed. The dog found out his mistake
+instantly, and the savage got up, madder than ever. It was getting dark
+by that time, but the savage thought he would have a game of bat and
+ball with me while the light lasted, anyhow, so he took good aim and
+threw his club at me. I caught it a sharp blow with your trowsers, and
+knocked it back to him. He threw again with the same result. The third
+throw went wide of the mark, and so I missed, but it didn't matter, for
+there was no catching out to be done in that game--I suppose the savage
+don't understand the rules of bat and ball.
+
+[Illustration: THE ELOQUENT LANGUAGE OF GESTURE.]
+
+"Finally, after he had thrown a good many times, his club lodged in the
+tree, and I climbed up and got it. It was a good stout club--there it
+lies by the fire--and I thought I might have use for it, so I didn't
+throw it back at the savage's head, as I at first intended, but kept it
+for future use.
+
+"Night came on and the savage seated himself to watch me. He kept very
+quiet, and made his dog stop growling and snarling. At first I didn't
+understand this. I began to think that he was going to offer me terms,
+but he didn't. At last I saw what he was at. He was waiting for me to
+fall asleep and drop down!
+
+"There was nothing for it but to keep awake, and as it was very cold I
+had to climb about a little to keep myself comfortable, and that kept me
+me from falling asleep.
+
+"The worst of it all was that I could see the big fire you fellows made,
+and knew what anxiety you were suffering. I sat there in the dark, hour
+after hour, worrying and wondering if the daylight had forgotten to
+come, and it was an awful time. The rain came on at last, and I was
+quickly wet through. The savage couldn't sit long on the ground when the
+floods came, so he got up and moved uneasily about, but he wouldn't go
+away. His persistence was 'worthy of a better cause.' After a little
+while he began to collect bushes to make himself a shelter, I suppose,
+or to sit on, or stand on--I don't know what. It was slow work in the
+dark, and he had to go away some little distance to get what he wanted.
+While he was away on one of these little trips an idea occurred to me,
+but as he was already on his way back I could not act upon it at once,
+so I sat still and waited. He went away again, fifty or seventy-five
+yards into the woods--I could tell by the noise he made breaking bushes.
+Then I tried my plan. Climbing down to the lowest limb of the tree, I
+could see the dog, dark as it was, standing ready to receive me.
+Grasping the club in my right hand, I dropped a pair of trowsers full of
+rice. The dog, mistaking the bundle for me, was on it in an instant, and
+the next instant I was on him. I dropped on him purposely, and luckily
+my left foot struck his neck. Of course I could not hold him long in
+that way, but still it gave me a moment's advantage, and during that
+moment I managed to deal the brute two or three blows over the head
+which, I think, must have crushed his skull. At any rate he grew limber
+under me and never uttered a sound. Hurriedly picking up the trowsers
+and swinging them around my neck, I was about to run when Mr. Savage
+came running out of the woods. I still had the club in my hand, and
+quick as lightning I struck him with it and took to my heels. How badly
+I hurt him I don't know, but not so badly as could have been wished, for
+he paused only for a few seconds. Then he gave chase. I ran with all my
+might, with him just behind. Presently I struck something with my
+foot--a grape-vine I suppose--and came very near to falling, but managed
+to save myself. Mr. Savage Thursday was not so lucky. He struck the vine
+fairly and came down like a big tree trunk. For a second he uttered no
+sound. Then I could hear him swearing in Savage, but by this time I was
+fifty yards ahead of him, and by the time that he decided whether to
+resume the chase or not I was too far away to inquire what his decision
+was. It was so dark that if he had followed he couldn't have found me,
+so I slackened my pace, and not long afterward dropped into a walk,
+listening occasionally to hear if he was coming. Hearing nothing, I
+plodded on. I didn't know just where I was, so I thought my best plan
+was to keep straight on until I struck the shore. I passed a group of
+huts about a mile from my tree, and I suppose the savages live there, as
+I heard dogs barking, but I didn't stop to inquire. Finally I came to
+the beach, and, believing that I was more than half way round the
+island, I turned to the right and followed the shore till I got to camp.
+There, that's the whole story of the strange adventures of Master
+Charles Black, of his exploration of Bee Island, his encounter with the
+savage, and his fortunate escape and return to his companions. How did
+you hurt your foot, Ned?"
+
+Ned, who had risen and was limping about the fire, explained his mishap,
+and in their turn he and Jack told Charley of the events of the night as
+seen from their point of view. Their story was less exciting than
+Charley's, but he was deeply interested in it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ON GUARD.
+
+
+"Who in the world can Charley's 'savages' be, Ned?" asked Jack, when the
+story was finished.
+
+"Negro squatters," answered Ned; "I didn't think there were any on Bee
+Island."
+
+"What do you mean by negro squatters?"
+
+"Why, negroes who, instead of hiring themselves out or renting land,
+have simply squatted on the island, cultivating little patches, and
+living by hunting and fishing. There are a good many on plantations that
+haven't been cultivated since the war. You see, when the war ended there
+were many men who had large bodies of land--some of them owning half a
+dozen big plantations--but with very little capital. They have not been
+able, for want of money, to resume the cultivation of all their
+abandoned plantations, so there are many large tracts still lying idle
+and unoccupied, and some of the negroes, not caring to hire as hands, or
+to rent land, have squatted here and there. They are generally the worst
+of the negroes; men without thrift, and almost untouched by
+civilization. They prefer a wild life, and live by fishing, hunting, and
+stealing from choice."
+
+"But, I say," said Charley, "my savage wasn't a tame negro at all. He
+couldn't speak English I tell you."
+
+"No more can many others of the old sea-island and rice-field negroes.
+They talk a jargon which only themselves and the old-time overseers ever
+understood. The fact is that many of them really were savages before the
+war,--untamed Guinea savages. They or their parents were brought here
+from Africa, and they lived all their lives here on these coast
+plantations, rarely seeing a white person except their overseers, and
+learning scarcely any thing of civilized life. They were not at all like
+the negroes up in Aiken, and all over the South for that matter. They
+were simply savages who had learned to work under an overseer, and when
+the war ended the worst of them relapsed into the ways of savage life
+instead of trying to improve themselves as the negroes everywhere else
+did. They hadn't learned enough to want to be civilized."
+
+"But what did that fellow get after Charley for?"
+
+"Because we've been robbing their rice field without knowing it."
+
+"I didn't think of that. I thought the rice was wild--self-seeded."
+
+"Probably it is," answered Ned, "but they regard it as theirs for all
+that, just as they think this island is theirs, although it belongs to
+my uncle."
+
+"Now I know who stole our provisions," said Charley. "But I say, boys,
+what's to be done? Suppose the savages should attack us here?"
+
+"They may do that," answered Ned, "though I don't think it likely. They
+want us away; perhaps, but they chiefly want us to let them and their
+rice alone, and now that we know that it's theirs by some sort of right,
+we'll let it alone and get on with what we have on hand. The main thing
+now is to build our boat. We must get on as fast as we can with that."
+
+"That's so," said Jack. "That must be the first thing thought of, but
+still it seems to me we should do something for our own defence. You
+see, Ned, if they should attack us, we are helpless. We haven't a thing
+to defend ourselves with, now that the gun is gone, and it isn't right
+to trust too much to those people's good-nature."
+
+"Well, what can we do?"
+
+"A good many things; I don't know exactly what will be best as yet, but
+we must think it out while we work on the boat. Then we can compare
+notes and do whatever is best. We'll work on the boat until dinner-time,
+and then give the afternoon to our defences. Perhaps we can make so good
+a beginning that we needn't spend more than an hour or two each day on
+that work after to-day."
+
+"All right," said Ned; "now let's get to work on the boat."
+
+With a will the three boys set to work. The stem- and stern-posts of the
+new boat were securely fastened to the keel, and the difficult task of
+setting up the ribs was begun. These ribs were so broken that it
+required not a little planning and contriving to make them answer the
+purpose; but Jack was very ingenious, and under his direction Ned and
+Charley managed to do some very clever splicing and bracing, while Jack
+himself dealt with the most difficult problems.
+
+By mid-day about half the ribs were in their place.
+
+"We can begin to see the shape of our new boat," said Ned, "and I'm not
+sure she isn't going to be prettier than the old _Red Bird_."
+
+"By the way," said Jack, "what are we to name her?"
+
+"The Phoenix," suggested Charley; then he added: "No that won't do,
+because it isn't a case of rising from ashes. The _Red Bird_ wasn't
+burned."
+
+"No," said Ned, "that would be very absurd. Suppose we call her
+Sea-Gull, because she came to us--in her timbers at least--from the
+sea."
+
+"Better call her 'axe, hatchet, and hunting-knife,'" said Jack, "because
+we are making her with those tools. But if we must be poetical and
+suggestive, why not call her Aphrodite? She, like that fabled goddess,
+is sprung from the foam of the sea."
+
+"_Aphrodite_ it is," shouted Jack's companions, and Charley added:
+
+"You're the most classical and poetic youth of the party, Jack, if you
+do pretend to sneer at us for our sentimental fancy for an appropriate
+name."
+
+"Very well," replied Jack, "you're welcome to think so; but just now I
+want my dinner worse than any thing else, and that isn't a mere
+sentiment I assure you."
+
+Dinner over, the preparations for defence were begun.
+
+"What plan have you thought of, Jack?" Charley asked.
+
+"Let me hear from you and Ned first," answered Jack.
+
+"Well, I've thought of earthworks," said Charley; "they say they are the
+best fortifications."
+
+"Against cannon, yes," said Ned; "but it's only because cannon can't
+batter them down as they can masonry. Our problem is a very different
+one, because our savages haven't any cannon. What we have got to do is
+not to make fortifications that can't be battered down by artillery, but
+to fence ourselves in in some way so that the negro squatters can't get
+at us."
+
+"Well, what's your idea for that?" asked Charley.
+
+"A stockade."
+
+"Details?" queried Jack.
+
+"My notion is," answered Ned, "to set a line of stockade around the
+camp, running it out into the water on each side, making a big 'C' of
+it. If we make it ten feet high and slope it outward, it will puzzle the
+squatters to get over it, and from the inside we can beat them off."
+
+"But how shall we make the stockade?" asked Jack.
+
+"Why, by digging a trench first, and setting timbers in it, sloping them
+at the proper angle, and filling in with earth."
+
+"But couldn't a strong man pull a timber down by jumping up and hanging
+to it with his hands?" asked Charley.
+
+"Perhaps so, if each timber stood alone," said Ned, "but we'll set a row
+of them in the ditch, and then roll a log in behind them before filling
+up. Then we'll set another row and roll in another log, and so on. Then,
+in order to pull down a post it will be necessary to lift the whole of
+the log that is behind it, together with all the earth that lies on top
+of the log, and that is more than any half dozen men can do."
+
+"That's an excellent idea," said Jack, after thinking awhile, "but the
+job is too big to be completed to-day. We'd better follow my plan first,
+and make the stockade hereafter."
+
+"What's your plan?"
+
+"To build a sort of wall of timber around the camp. It isn't half so
+good as a stockade, because of course it is easily climbed over; but it
+is better than nothing, and will do for one night."
+
+"But I don't see," said Charley, "that we can build a timber wall half
+so quickly as we can make the stockade. To do it we have got to cut
+enough logs to make a pile all around the camp, and that will take ten
+times as many logs as it will to make the stockade."
+
+"That is true," said Jack, "and, besides, small timbers, five or six
+inches in diameter, will do as well for the stockade as big logs, and in
+the present state of our axe that is a consideration not to be despised.
+I surrender. Ned's plan is by odds the best one. Let's get to work at
+it, and if we don't finish it to-day, we'll patch up the deficiency in
+some way. Luckily we have digging tools."
+
+The soil of the coast and islands of South Carolina is a light
+vegetable mould, mixed with sand, and below it there is sand only. There
+are no rocks, no stones, no pebbles even, and no stiff clay; and all
+this was greatly in the boys' favor. The trench grew very rapidly as
+they worked. Jack and Ned dug, while Charley, who was more expert with
+the axe than either of his companions, cut down small trees and trimmed
+them into shape for the stockade, making each about fourteen feet long,
+so that when set in the ditch it would project about ten feet above
+ground.
+
+The digging of the ditch was the smallest part of the task. Its length,
+in order to enclose the hut, the well, and the boat, had to be about one
+hundred and fifty feet, so that a great many sticks of timber were
+necessary.
+
+"We must set them about six inches apart," said Jack, "so as to use as
+few as we can at first. If necessary, we can fill in the gaps afterward;
+but a man can't get through a six-inch crack, and by setting them in
+that way each post, with its half of the two cracks, will occupy about a
+foot of space."
+
+But to cut a hundred and fifty pieces of timber with a dull axe was no
+small job, and when night came on the boys had only twenty-five of them
+set up in their places, while as many more were ready for use. This was
+discouraging, and in their weariness Ned and Charley felt very much
+disheartened indeed. Jack alone kept his spirits up.
+
+"It's very good work so far as it goes," he said, looking at the line of
+timbers all leaning outward from the camp, "and when we get it done it
+will puzzle all the squatters in South Carolina to take our fort."
+
+"Yes, if we ever do get it done," said Charley, despondently.
+
+"Now, Charley," said Jack, "none of that. We've been in a tighter place
+than this, and you especially ought not to be downhearted. You're ever
+so much better off than you were this time last night, when that darkey
+had you treed; and you're better off now than Ned is, with his game
+foot."
+
+"Poor fellow," said Charley, looking at Ned as he limped into the hut
+with difficulty.
+
+"The fact is," continued Jack, "we're tired out, and so things look blue
+to us, but they'll look better in the morning. You see we got no sleep
+last night, besides wearing ourselves out with anxiety and excitement,
+and we have worked like convicts all day. We'll feel better and brighter
+after we get some sleep, and things that look gloomy and discouraging
+now will look bright and hopeful enough to-morrow morning."
+
+"That's true," said Ned, coming out of the hut again, "and it would be
+much better for us if we could quit work right now, and sleep for ten
+hours without waking, but we can't."
+
+"Why not?" asked Charley, who was utterly worn out.
+
+"Because we've some more work to do that must be done before we sleep,"
+answered Ned. "What we have done for defence is of no good at all as it
+stands. We must have a barrier around the camp to-night."
+
+"How shall we make one?" asked Jack.
+
+"With brush. We have plenty of it already cut in the shape of the tree
+tops we've trimmed off in getting our stockade poles."
+
+"Brush won't make a very good defence," muttered Charley.
+
+"No, but it will be much better than no defence at all," replied Ned.
+"It isn't easy to climb over a well-packed brush pile, particularly if
+the brush is so laid that all the branches point outward, and that's the
+way we'll lay it. It won't take long to make a wall of that kind, and we
+can remove it little by little, as we set the poles hereafter."
+
+This plan commended itself to Jack, and Charley submitted. Poor fellow,
+he was too weary to take any active interest even in plans for defence.
+The brushwood was brought and carefully placed in position. It was not
+sufficient to make a wall all the way around, but only a small gap was
+left near the water.
+
+"Shall we cut more brush to-night, Jack?" asked Ned.
+
+"No, I think we needn't. When we go to setting poles to-morrow, the
+brush we remove will do to close the gap with, and for one night we can
+watch so small an opening. We need rest and sleep now more than any
+thing else. You and Charley lie down. I'm the freshest one of the party,
+I think, and so I'll stand guard for a good while before calling either
+of you."
+
+"Stand guard?" asked Ned; "what for?"
+
+"Why, it won't do at all for all three to sleep at once. We might be
+attacked while asleep. If there were no danger of that we needn't have
+thought of a stockade at all."
+
+Sleepy and tired as Ned and Charley were, they recognized the necessity
+for this watchfulness. It was very hard for the three weary fellows to
+take their turns at standing guard that night, but they did their duty.
+Jack took a long turn first, and Ned followed him, so that Charley got a
+good sleep of several hours, and was much refreshed before his period of
+watching began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A NEW DANGER.
+
+
+The night brought its alarms with it. Every noise in the woods round
+about startled the alert sentinel, and there always are noises at night,
+not only in the woods but in houses also, as we all find out, when for
+any reason we are awake and on the alert. It seemed to each of the boys
+during this night, that there never were so many sounds which could not
+be explained: crackling noises, like those which are produced by the
+breaking of dry sticks under foot; sounds of footsteps, and of hard
+breathing; a thousand different sounds, in short, each of which seemed
+for the time being surely to indicate the stealthy approach of some foe.
+
+Morning came at last, however, and no ill had befallen the camp. It was
+voted at breakfast that this day should be devoted exclusively to
+fortification, security being deemed of more pressing importance than
+escape from the island.
+
+By steady persistence the work was carried forward until the line of
+tall, leaning pickets was more than half-way round the camp. This at
+least reduced the space to be watched through the night to less than
+half its former length, and as the night passed quietly with no sign of
+an enemy about, it was unanimously resolved, the next morning, that
+Sunday should be kept as a day of rest, the opinion being that the
+completion of the stockade could not now be called a work of necessity.
+
+During Sunday night, however, the boys had reason to modify this opinion
+somewhat. About two o'clock Ned, who was on guard at the time, armed
+with a big club, awoke his companions, saying, in a whisper:
+
+"Get up, quick! There's somebody about."
+
+The two sleepers sprang to their feet quickly, and, seizing their clubs,
+joined Ned outside the hut.
+
+By way of precaution the boys had cut a considerable number of short,
+thick, and very heavy clubs, which could be made to serve a good
+purpose as missiles. Thrown with violence from the hand they were
+likely to be of much greater service than stones or brickbats would have
+been, if such things had been at hand. Armed with these clubs the boys
+peered and listened. For a while they heard nothing. Then a low growl
+came from the bushes, and the sound of a sharp blow followed it
+immediately. Evidently one of the squatters was sneaking around the
+camp, and when his dog growled he struck it to secure silence.
+
+The boys waited a long time but heard nothing more. Finally, in a low
+whisper, Ned said:
+
+"There can't be more than one of them here."
+
+"No, I suppose not," answered Jack, "but let's be quiet and see what he
+wants."
+
+All became still again, and as the boys from their hiding-place could
+not be seen by any one in the bushes, the prowler had every reason to
+suppose that they were asleep. After perhaps an hour's waiting, Jack
+whispered:
+
+"I see him; he is crawling on his stomach to the fire. H--sh! let's see
+what he wants."
+
+The man could be seen only in dim outline until he reached the fire,
+and, taking a smouldering brand, blew it to quicken its burning. The
+light thus created revealed his face, and the sight was not a pleasant
+one to the boys. They saw in their visitor as ugly and forbidding a
+specimen of untamed humanity as one often meets. He was a negro of the
+small, ugly, tough-looking variety, seen nowhere in this country except
+on the South Carolina and Georgia coast. About five feet two inches
+high, he had a small, flat head, large, muscular arms and body, short
+legs, and no clothing except a sort of sack with head- and arm-holes in
+it, worn as a shirt. His brow was so low and retreating, that his eyes
+seemed to project beyond it. His nose was flattened out as if it had
+tried to spread itself evenly all over his face. His thick lips were too
+short to cover his big teeth, and it is hardly necessary to add that he
+looked far less like a rational human being than like some wild animal.
+
+When he had satisfied himself that his brand was burning, he crept a few
+paces further, and his purpose was revealed. He meant to set fire to the
+pile of plank that the boat was to be built of.
+
+"Quick now," said Jack, "give him a volley of clubs and then charge!"
+
+[Illustration: "GIVE HIM A VOLLEY AND THEN CHARGE!"]
+
+It was no sooner said than done. Standing at less than twenty feet
+distance, the boys threw one club each at the intruder, and then,
+snatching other clubs, one in each hand, rushed upon him. Rising, he
+knocked Jack down, but was brought to his own knees by Charley's club.
+At that moment the man's dog, a surly-looking brute, seized Charley, and
+it required the combined efforts of all three boys--for Jack was up
+again in an instant--to beat the creature off. While they were engaged
+in this, the dog's master, finding himself outnumbered and overmatched,
+took to his heels and the camp was clear, for the dog quickly followed,
+howling with pain.
+
+"Are you much hurt, Charley?" was the first question asked when the
+enemy's retreat left the boys free to think of themselves.
+
+"I'm pretty severely bitten," was the reply, "but luckily it's in the
+fleshy part of my thigh, and the flesh isn't torn. One of you must have
+struck very quickly, or I shouldn't have got off so easily. See," he
+continued, when the fire had been stirred into a blaze, "the brute
+buried his teeth, but let go again without shaking me."
+
+"Yes, I saw him jump at you, and tried to hit him before he got hold,"
+said Ned. "I must have struck him just as he seized you--half a second
+too late to save you entirely, but I hit him fairly on the head."
+
+"And he had to let go of me to howl," said Charley, who, in spite of his
+pain, was in good spirits after the exciting encounter. "By the way, are
+you hurt, Jack?"
+
+"I've an earache," said Jack, turning his head and showing an inflamed
+and swollen ear; "but I'm glad that fellow didn't hit me fairly in the
+face, as he meant to do. It would have settled the question of
+photographs for me for all time, I think. Why, if I had caught that blow
+on the face my nose would have been distributed over the rest of my
+countenance as evenly as his is."
+
+"You look solemn, Ned," said Charley; "are you hurt too?"
+
+"No, but I'm thinking."
+
+"Well, out with your thought then. What is it?"
+
+"Only that we're fairly in for it now."
+
+"In for what?"
+
+"War."
+
+"War?"
+
+"Yes. You don't suppose we're going to have peace with the squatters
+now, do you? They'll attack us in force as sure as sunrise and sunset."
+
+"Well, it's my opinion that one of them, at least, has got as much of us
+as he wants," said Charley.
+
+"Very likely," answered Ned; "but now he'll want to give us something,
+by way of returning the compliment. He'll bring all his friends with him
+next time."
+
+"But I don't see what we've done that they should interfere with us."
+
+"Oh! don't you? Well, that's because you don't look at the matter with
+their eyes. You see, when we first came here they didn't object. They
+took a fancy to our coffee and flour and bacon, and the rest of it, and
+helped themselves, but they didn't in the least object to us or our
+presence. Having got all we had for them to steal, they let us alone.
+But when they found that we were getting rice out of what they called
+their field, it put a new face on the matter, and they objected. You
+baffled the one that got after you, and he hurt himself trying to catch
+you. That was another offence on our part, and so this fellow that was
+here to-night determined to get even with us by burning us out. He has
+been pretty badly whipped, and he isn't likely to forget it. He'll bring
+all his friends here and we must take care of ourselves, for we shan't
+get any coddling, I can assure you, if we fall into their hands."
+
+"You are right, Ned," said Jack; "and now we must really take care of
+ourselves. It's nearly morning, and we may as well get breakfast at once
+and get an early start. We must be ready to receive those fellows when
+they come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A CAMP-FACTORY.
+
+
+Breakfast was finished before daylight that morning, and when it was
+over the three companions resumed work upon their fortification. Ned
+stopped long enough to catch some shrimps for dinner, but with that
+exception there was no break at all in the morning's work, and
+dinner-time found the boys tired as well as hungry. The afternoon was
+spent quite as industriously, and when night came the fort, though still
+incomplete, was well advanced toward security.
+
+"Now," said Ned, when supper-time came, "we have had rather too much of
+shrimps, I think, and of oysters too. I'm going out with the net
+to-night to catch some fish for to-morrow. What do you two propose to
+do?"
+
+"I'm going to make some more clubs," said Charley. "We've something
+like a fort now, and the next thing is to provide an abundance of
+ammunition."
+
+"By the way," said Ned, "why can't we make some better arms?"
+
+"Of what sort?" asked Jack.
+
+"Well, bows and arrows, for example. We can make arrow-heads out of some
+of our copper bolts, and they are weapons not to be despised--what are
+you smiling at, Charley?"
+
+"Oh! nothing; I was only wondering what good bows and arrows would do
+without bowstrings."
+
+Ned's countenance fell; then he joined in the smile of his companions,
+and admitted that his little plan had been very imperfectly worked out
+in his head.
+
+"I might make some blow-guns out of the canes," he said, "but they're
+not worth making. I have killed birds with them, but I've tried them
+thoroughly and they won't shoot hard enough to drive an arrow-head half
+an inch into a pine plank; so they would be worthless for our purposes."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "I think we may make up our minds that we've got to
+get on with no better weapons than our clubs for general use, with the
+axe, hatchet, and digging tools to fall back upon as a last resort. To
+use such things means to kill, and of course we don't want to do that."
+
+"No, of course not. We only want to protect ourselves and make these
+squatters let us alone. We don't want to do the poor creatures any
+unnecessary harm."
+
+Saying this, Ned took the net and went away in search of fish. When he
+had gone Jack said:
+
+"Charley, let's build a platform to fight from."
+
+"I don't quite understand you," said Charley.
+
+"Well, you see the stockade is ten feet high, and slopes outward, and so
+it won't be easy for anybody to scale it; but it isn't impossible,
+particularly if one has time to put up a pole or two to climb on. My
+notion is that we must be prepared to interfere with anybody who tries
+to do that. We must build a sort of platform all around inside the
+stockade, about six feet from the ground; it needn't be any thing more
+than a row of poles laid against the stockade and supported by some
+forked stakes. We can then stand up on these poles and look over the top
+of the stockade. If anybody tries to climb up, we can beat him back
+from there, while if we were on the ground inside here, we should be
+nearly helpless. It won't take you and me more than half an hour or so
+to rig the thing up."
+
+"That's a good idea," replied Charley; "and we need the platform more
+to-night than we shall at any time hereafter."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because if those fellows mean to attack us they will do so at once. If
+we escape to-night we're not likely to be attacked at all."
+
+"I don't know about that," answered Jack. "On the contrary, I think
+they'll let us alone to-night, because they'll expect us to be on the
+lookout for them. They have no special fancy for getting their heads
+broken, and when they come they will try to take us by surprise. At
+least that's my notion."
+
+"Then you think they are likely to attack us later this week or next?"
+
+"Yes, at any time except to-night. They will wait for us to make up our
+minds that they aren't coming at all."
+
+"Well--that _fabula docet_ that we mustn't make up our minds in that
+direction at all."
+
+"Exactly. We must be as alert two weeks hence as we are now--if we're
+here so long. But come, let's get to work."
+
+Cutting some forked stakes, which did not need to be driven far into the
+ground, because they were to be leant toward the sloping stockade, the
+boys placed them in position, and laid poles from one to another until
+the line stretched all the way around the enclosure. It was easy to walk
+upon these poles all the way around, and when standing upon them the
+boys' shoulders were above the top of the stockade.
+
+Near the water, on each side, an entrance to the stockade had been made,
+and a movable piece of timber, with a notch in it and a brace behind,
+served to close each of these gates; and when thus closed and fastened
+from the inside, the gates were as secure as any other part of the
+fortress.
+
+Jack's prediction that the enemy would not appear on Monday night was
+verified. The whole of that week, indeed, was passed in complete
+quietude.
+
+Having made their fortress reasonably secure, the boys resumed work upon
+the boat on Monday and continued it throughout the week; but they gave
+only one half of each day to that task, devoting the other half to the
+work of strengthening their fort. The posts, as we know, were originally
+set six inches apart for the sake of hurrying the work, but this was not
+intended to be a permanent arrangement. As fast as they could the boys
+filled up the spaces thus left, and by Saturday night the fort was
+complete, so that its inmates felt entirely confident of their ability
+to beat off any attack the negro squatters might choose to make.
+
+Meantime the boat approached completion, though there was, perhaps, a
+week's work, or a little less, still to be done upon her.
+
+"We must caulk her seams," said Ned on Sunday, as the boys sat chatting
+round their fire, "with moss instead of oakum, and then we'll coat her
+all over with pitch."
+
+"By the way," answered Charley, "we've got to make the pitch. Do you
+know how, Ned?"
+
+"Not very well," replied Ned, "but I think we can make out."
+
+"I know," said Jack; "I've seen tar made in the North Carolina tar
+country, and pitch is only boiled tar."
+
+"Very well, then, you shall superintend that job," said Ned; "you know
+that was our bargain, to make each fellow manage the things he
+understood best."
+
+"You'd better make a lot of salt, then, right away, beginning to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Why? You don't use salt in making pitch, do you?"
+
+"No; but I shall want the big kettle to boil the tar in, and it won't be
+fit for use as a salt kettle after that."
+
+"Then we must cook up all our rice too," said Charley.
+
+"No, we needn't," said Ned; "it would spoil if we did, and we can cook
+it, as we need it, in the coffee-pot."
+
+Early the next morning these preparations were begun. Charley got his
+salt factory at work, Ned worked at the boat, and Jack made preparations
+for tar-burning. He began by digging a pit about four feet square and
+two feet deep. Then--at a distance of about a foot--he dug another pit
+about three feet square and four feet deep. He packed the wall of earth
+that separated the two pits as firmly as he could, and then, cutting a
+long joint of cane for a tar pipe, he passed it through this wall, from
+a point exactly at the bottom of the shallow pit. He inclined it
+downward a little, so that the tar might easily run though it and fall
+into the deeper pit.
+
+Having finished this part of his work, Jack went into the woods near the
+camp and prepared a large quantity of "fat" pine for burning. Piling
+this in the shallow pit, and heaping it two or three feet above the
+level ground, he took the shovel and covered the pile with earth to a
+depth of a foot or more, leaving a single opening through which he could
+set fire to the mass. His object was, by smothering the flames in this
+way, to make the fat, resinous pine burn slowly, creating a roasting
+heat under the earth, and thus, as it were, melting the tar out of the
+pine. If he had not covered the wood with earth, it would have blazed up
+and burned to smoke, resin and all, making no tar at all.
+
+When all was ready the pile was set on fire, and as soon as it had
+caught well, Jack covered the single opening with earth, and the mound
+smoked like a volcano. Pretty soon a little stream of smoking-hot tar
+began trickling through the cane-tube into the deep pit.
+
+Night had now come on, and the smoke from the tar-kiln, catching the
+light from the camp-fire, glowed with a peculiar red color, and gave a
+picturesque air of strangeness to the camp.
+
+"You've started a young volcano, Jack," said Charley, as he looked at
+the smoking mound.
+
+"Yes. An improvement on Crusoe," said Ned; "he had no volcano on his
+island. But what a quantity of smoke the thing does make. It looks as if
+more material came out of the mound in that way than you put into it in
+the shape of wood."
+
+"Yes, and so a gallon of water will fill a big room if you make it into
+steam."
+
+"What is smoke anyhow?" asked Charley.
+
+"It is composed of several things," answered Ned, "but chiefly of
+carbon. Indeed, all that you can see in smoke is carbon."
+
+"Then why doesn't it burn?"
+
+"It would if it were kept in the fire long enough; but the light vapors
+that rise from the fire carry the particles of carbon with them, and so
+they get out of the fire before they are burned. The smoke is simply so
+much wasted fuel, and many plans have been made to save it in factories
+where the cost of fuel is great."
+
+"There's a big waste in making tar, then," said Charley.
+
+"Not half so much as you think," said Jack. "They don't waste the smoke
+up in the North Carolina tar country."
+
+"How do they burn it?"
+
+"They don't burn it, but they catch it and sell it."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Why, they have wire screens stretched over the tar-kilns, and as the
+smoke strikes them the fine particles of carbon stick to them. I have
+seen masses of them hanging down many inches from the screens, and very
+pretty they are too."
+
+"But what do they do with the stuff?" asked Charley.
+
+"Sell it. It is called lamp-black, and it brings a pretty good price."
+
+"That is close economy, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, but it is frequently by just such 'margins' as that that
+manufacturing becomes profitable. It is a very poor and desolate-looking
+country up there in the tar-making districts, and I remember hearing a
+man say once, as we passed through it: 'This is the country where they
+waste nothing; they bark the trees to get resin: they distil the resin
+and make turpentine; what's left is rosin; when the trees die they burn
+them to make tar, catch the smoke for lamp-black, and there aren't any
+ashes.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A NIGHT OF ADVENTURE.
+
+
+The tar flowed freely during Monday night and Tuesday, and by the time
+that Tuesday's labors were finished, there was enough in the deep vat to
+make all the pitch that was required. The salt-making was finished too,
+and the big kettle was ready for use the next day in boiling the tar to
+make pitch of it.
+
+On Tuesday evening Ned determined to go fishing, as he did nearly every
+night when the tide was at a proper stage. He had learned now the spots
+most frequented by the mullets, and usually succeeded in bringing back a
+good supply of them to camp. The boys had grown very tired indeed of
+their restricted diet. For three weeks now they had not tasted meat of
+any kind--for they never repeated their snake supper,--but had lived on
+fish, shrimps, oysters, and a few crabs; and being without bacon or any
+other kind of fat with which to fry their fish, they could not make an
+appearance of variety by changing the way of cooking them. They had to
+eat every thing boiled, or roasted, or broiled on the coals, and in the
+absence of butter and other seasoning for broiled fish, the roast,
+baked, broiled, and boiled all tasted alike. They had lost their relish
+for such food as they could get, but having nothing else they were
+forced to eat it.
+
+On this Tuesday night Ned remained away from camp longer than usual, and
+at about eleven o'clock Charley went to bed, Jack mounting guard. About
+an hour later Jack waked Charley, saying:
+
+"I'm uneasy about Ned, Charley. It must be midnight and he hasn't come
+in yet."
+
+Charley sprang up quickly, and the two looked and listened. Finally it
+was decided that as Charley was less able to run than Jack--because of
+the dog-bite, which had not yet entirely healed,--he should remain on
+guard while Jack should go out in search of Ned.
+
+Ten minutes later Jack came back, running as quietly as he could, and
+hastily pushed through the eastern gate. Fastening this, he exclaimed
+in an excited way:
+
+"The squatters are all around us, and I'm afraid they've captured Ned."
+
+"Why? Where are they? Tell me all about it, quick."
+
+"I don't know much about it myself," answered Jack. "I only know that as
+I walked down along the shore in the direction that Ned took, I almost
+stumbled over one of the squatters. I retreated, of course, and by
+keeping in the bushes and looking and listening, I made out that there
+were at least half a dozen of them about. As I could see nothing, and
+hear nothing of Ned, I'm afraid they've caught him. You see they came
+right along the shore where he was wading about and fishing, and if they
+hadn't caught him, of course he would have run in to give us the alarm.
+Poor fellow! I wonder if they'll kill him?"
+
+"I'm afraid of worse than that," said Charley, solemnly
+
+"What?" asked Jack.
+
+"I'm afraid they'll flog him. That would be horrible! for my part I'd a
+good deal rather be killed, and I'm sure Ned would."
+
+"Yes, of course," said Jack. Then, after a pause, he added:
+
+"I'll tell you what, Charley, we mustn't let that happen."
+
+"How'll we help it?"
+
+"Well, they won't try that till after they've made their attack on the
+fort. They'll simply tie Ned, and keep him till they're through with us,
+and so we have time to make a diversion in his favor. We've got to give
+them battle outside the fort. If we can drive them off we may find Ned.
+When he finds what's up he'll let us know where he is quickly enough."
+
+"Yes, if he hasn't been carried too far away already," said Charley. "At
+any rate, we'll try. Where were the darkies when you saw them?"
+
+"About two hundred yards away, in the woods near the shore."
+
+"All right. Now let's remember that we've got to stick together, and
+that our object is to do not as much but as little fighting as
+necessary, and to get past the enemy if we can, and go on down the shore
+in search of Ned. We mustn't stop to do any unnecessary fighting."
+
+"No, we'll try first to creep past without any fighting at all," said
+Jack.
+
+Arming themselves with their best clubs the two boys crept out of the
+eastern gate and made their way as secretly as they could through the
+woods. They saw two of the squatters, but managed to slip past them
+without discovery, and when they had got well beyond them they made
+their way rapidly along the beach, calling Ned at the top of their
+voices and listening for his answer. At last they heard a shout in
+reply, but it seemed a long way off, and singularly enough it was in the
+direction of the camp. Turning around, they were filled with horror and
+amazement at what they saw. A great red blaze was shooting up from the
+camp.
+
+"They're burning us out!" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"Yes, and they must have Ned there with them. His shout came from that
+direction."
+
+"Come, let's run with all our might. We may get there in time to save
+Ned at any rate!"
+
+They ran like deer-hounds and were quickly at the burning camp.
+
+They encountered three of the negroes just outside the camp, but coming
+upon them by surprise they were able to run past and to enter the gate
+before their enemies could lay hold of them. Once inside they fastened
+the gate log. As they did so and turned they discovered that they had
+caught one of their assailants--a negro boy not older than
+themselves--inside. This lad showed fight, but with two against him he
+was quickly secured, and tied with the boat's anchor rope.
+
+Then Jack and Charley had time to see the extent of the mischief done.
+The stockade itself was uninjured, and thus far the boat also was safe,
+but the vat of tar was afire, and the bush hut in which the boys slept
+had either caught from the blazing tar or been set on fire by the negro
+boy. It was obviously too late to save the hut, even if the boys had
+been free to work upon it, as they were not, for the danger to the boat,
+which lay very near the fire and was already scorching, was too great to
+be trifled with. Jack managed to rescue the salt from the hut, and then
+he and Charley began wetting moss and laying it over the boat.
+
+"This won't do, Jack," said Charley; "those rascals outside will make
+their way over the stockade if they aren't watched. Can't you keep the
+moss wet now?"
+
+"Yes, I'll attend to that. You go to the platform at once. If you need
+me call out and I'll come."
+
+Charley sprang to the platform, and was none too soon. The negroes
+outside, hearing the cries of their imprisoned companion, were already
+trying to make their way within the enclosure. One of them having
+climbed upon the shoulders of another, had taken hold of the top of the
+stockade, and in another second would have drawn himself up. In that
+case the boys would have had to encounter him on equal terms, and
+perhaps another squatter would have been over the wall by that time.
+Luckily the light from the burning tar revealed the situation to Charley
+in an instant. Running along the platform to the point of danger, he
+rapped the knuckles of the climber with a degree of violence which at
+once ended his climbing. He dropped to the ground as if his hands had
+been cut off at the wrists, and then Charley began offensive measures.
+Throwing his clubs one after another--for a large supply of them had
+been stored along the platform--he compelled the assailants to beat a
+retreat. They threw some sticks at him in return, but he managed to
+dodge them, and Jack joining him for a few minutes, the pair fairly
+drove the assailants off. Then Jack returned to his task of protecting
+the boat, while Charley, promenading all the way around the barrier,
+kept guard against surprises.
+
+No further assault being made, and the fire gradually dying down until
+the boat was no longer in danger, Jack and Charley had time to think of
+Ned again, and their anxiety was intense.
+
+"At least we've got a hostage," said Jack, "and perhaps poor Ned will be
+able to arrange for an exchange. At any rate I hope so. There must be
+some of them who can speak English, and, besides, Ned understands their
+jargon a little."
+
+"Well, we'll hope for the best," said Charley, "but oughtn't we to make
+another effort to find Ned?"
+
+"I don't see what we can do," said Jack. "They've carried him off by
+this time, and to follow in the dark would be useless."
+
+"Yes, that's true. Listen! What was that?"
+
+Jack listened, but could hear nothing.
+
+"What did you hear?" asked he.
+
+"I thought I heard Ned shout."
+
+Jack gave a loud, long call, and then the two listened again. A shout in
+reply was this time distinctly heard.
+
+"That's Ned," said Charley.
+
+"Yes," answered Jack. "He's making all the trouble he can, I suppose, to
+delay their march and give us time to catch up. Come, Charley, we _must_
+rescue him."
+
+Again the boys sallied out, this time through the western gate. They ran
+along the shore, stopping occasionally to halloo and to listen for Ned's
+replies, which came promptly now.
+
+"They aren't getting on very fast with him," said Jack; "we're gaining
+on them at any rate."
+
+Again the boys ran. When they made their next pause to shout, they were
+astonished to hear Ned cry out, in his natural voice, from no great
+distance:
+
+"Is every thing burnt up?"
+
+Strangely enough the voice seemed to come from the water on the right,
+and both Jack and Charley were bewildered by the fact.
+
+"Where on earth are you?" called Jack.
+
+"Here," answered Ned, "out here on the oyster reef."
+
+The moon was near the zenith, and by carefully scanning the sea the boys
+could make out the figure of Ned, standing knee-deep in water, about
+fifty yards from shore. What to make of the situation they did not know.
+
+"What are you doing out there, Ned?" cried Jack.
+
+"I'm waiting for the tide to go down. Never mind me, but tell me about
+the fire. Did it burn the boat?"
+
+"No, only the tar in the vat and our hut. The boat is safe, and so is
+the stockade."
+
+"How did it catch fire?"
+
+"Why, the squatters set it afire while we were out hunting for you."
+
+"Have they been there, then?"
+
+"Yes. Haven't they had you prisoner?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. But don't stand there talking. Go back and take care
+of the camp. When the tide goes down I'll return. Hurry now, or those
+rascals will get in again and burn the boat."
+
+"But what in the world----"
+
+"Never mind that now. Go on to camp. You've no time to lose. I'll make
+explanations when I get there."
+
+The necessity for hurrying back was plain enough, and so, without
+further delay, Jack and Charley started toward the camp at a brisk
+trot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A CALCULATION OF PROFIT AND LOSS.
+
+
+When they arrived at camp Jack and Charley found every thing as they had
+left it, except that their prisoner was gone. Examination showed that he
+had gnawed the rope with which he had been bound, and thus had set
+himself free.
+
+At first the boys were disposed to regard this as a mishap, but a
+moment's reflection convinced them of their error.
+
+"Now that we know that Ned is safe," said Charley, "we have no use for
+that rascal. We should have set him free in the morning at any rate."
+
+"By the way," said Jack, "what do you make of Ned's performance?"
+
+"I can't make it out at all," said Charley.
+
+"He must have been cut off from camp by the squatters and forced to
+take refuge out there on the oyster reef."
+
+"No, the squatters came from the other direction, don't you remember?
+And, besides, Ned didn't know there had been any of them about until we
+told him."
+
+"I'll explain all that for myself," said Ned from the outside, "if
+you'll be good enough to take down the gate log and let me in."
+
+This was quickly done, and Ned entered, first pushing in the cast net
+well filled with fish. As he straightened himself up a glad "hurrah!"
+came from both his companions, who saw in his hands a turtle weighing at
+least twenty-five pounds.
+
+"Hurrah! Now we shall have a taste of meat again. Where did you get that
+fine fellow, Ned?"
+
+"On the oyster reef," answered Ned; "that's how I came to be out there."
+
+"Well, tell us all about it now."
+
+"Oh, there isn't a great deal to tell. When I left camp, I went down
+along the shore to the east and caught a few fish, but not many. Then I
+determined to try the other side of the camp. I strung my fish on a
+limber switch and came back, intending to leave them here before going
+on; but as I passed I saw that the gate was closed, so I walked around
+without bothering you fellows, and went on toward the west. I fished
+along at one place and another, and finally I got to fishing in the
+shallow water between the oyster reef and the shore, where the mullets
+seemed to be holding a public meeting or something of that sort. The
+tide was low then, though it was coming in, and the oyster reef was out
+of water. Finding that my switches were full of fish, and being nearer
+the reef than the shore, I thought I'd just take a look over the reef to
+see if I could find a small turtle. I had seen one out there several
+days ago, and my mouth watered so for a piece of meat that the thought
+of turtle made me wild. So, swinging my strings of fish over my neck, I
+crept about in the moonlight--for the moon showed a little through the
+trees by that time,--and after a pretty thorough search I spied this
+fellow scrambling along over the oyster bed. It seemed, from the slow
+progress he made, that the shells hurt his bare feet as much as they did
+mine; but that was probably only in appearance, for when he saw me
+creeping up on him he made better time, and if I hadn't been so bent
+upon having some meat for breakfast, he would have got away. As it was I
+forgot my bare feet long enough to catch the gentleman. Then I tried to
+go ashore, but the tide had come up and I couldn't. That is to say, I
+couldn't wade ashore, and to swim was to lose my turtle; so I made up my
+mind to stick it out till the tide turned. I had to stand in water up to
+my waist at high tide, but I didn't mind that. I wasn't worried till I
+saw the blaze here at camp, and heard you fellows yelling. I answered,
+but you stopped calling, so I supposed it was all right. I waited two or
+three hours longer, till the blaze began to die down. Then you fellows
+began calling again, and you came to me. You know the rest. I came
+ashore as soon after you left as the water would let me. Now tell me all
+about matters here. Where's your prisoner?"
+
+The boys soon recounted the adventures of the night.
+
+"What is the measure of damage?" Ned asked when the story was ended.
+
+"The hut is destroyed," said Charley; "and the tar," added Jack. "We can
+make another hut in an hour, but the destruction of the tar just as we
+were ready to use it is a more serious matter."
+
+"Yes, it will delay us a couple of days longer with the boat," said Ned,
+"and that's a pity. Let's see, this is Wednesday morning--for it's
+nearly daybreak now. If this hadn't happened we might have got away from
+here by next Wednesday,--just four weeks from the day we came. Now,
+however, we shan't get away before the Friday or Saturday following."
+
+"Well, that will be the appointed time," said Charley.
+
+"The appointed time?" asked Ned, "what do you mean?"
+
+"Why, don't you remember? You told Maum Sally we'd be gone a month, and
+she warned you not to stay a day longer than that."
+
+"Oh, yes, I forgot that! It will be curious, won't it, if we get away
+Saturday? I hadn't the least thought of staying a week when we came."
+
+"Nor I," said Jack. "If we had suspected what we were coming to we never
+would have come at all, I imagine."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Charley, doubtfully. "We came for
+adventures, and we've had them, if I know what such things are. And
+we've really had a good deal of fun."
+
+"That's true," said Ned; "we couldn't expect to sleep on feather beds,
+or to have much luxury of any kind on such an expedition. And, after
+all, our little hardships haven't hurt us. My foot is about well now,
+and your dog-bite, Charley, is in a fair way to heal. So, if we get away
+safely we're all the better for the trip. It will all seem like fun when
+we get back to school and think about it."
+
+"I dare say we've sharpened our wits a trifle too," said Jack. "We've
+learned how to take care of ourselves in the woods, and we shall be a
+good deal quicker and sounder in our thinking for this experience."
+
+"Well, it's clear that we are not sufficiently sharpened up yet," said
+Charley, "or else some one of us would have seen before this precisely
+what the fire has done for us."
+
+"What is it, Charley?"
+
+"Why, every grain of rice that we had in the world was in the hut, and
+of course it is all burnt up."
+
+"The mischief!" exclaimed Ned.
+
+"That's a calamity," added Jack, "but we must get more to-day."
+
+"Yes," said Ned, "if the squatters haven't gathered it all."
+
+"Don't let us meet trouble half way," said Jack; "it will be time enough
+to give up the rice when we find that we can't get it. Meantime, let's
+have some turtle steak for breakfast. Then we'll see what is to be
+done."
+
+In spite of the lack of rice and all other substitutes for bread, the
+boys enjoyed the broiled turtle more than any thing they had eaten for a
+fortnight at least.
+
+After breakfast they "scouted" a little, to make sure that there were
+none of the squatters on their side of the island. Then Charley climbed
+a tall tree, the plan being that he should watch for squatters while Ned
+and Jack should gather rice, so that they might not be surprised at
+their work.
+
+The rice had been cut, and very little remained of it; but here and
+there a little clump of it was still standing in the grass and bushes
+around the patch, and a hard morning's work enabled the boys to secure
+enough of these gleanings to last them for ten or twelve days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CHARLEY'S SECRET EXPEDITION.
+
+
+While Charley sat in the tree-top scanning the island in search of
+possible squatters who might interfere with the gathering of the rice,
+he saw something else that put a new idea into his head, and before his
+watch was done he had quite made up his mind to do something brilliant
+which would surprise and delight his companions.
+
+What he saw was nothing more remarkable than a calf, or rather a young
+bull, perhaps a year old, browsing in the edge of a thicket half a mile
+or more to the west of the camp, and not many hundreds of yards from the
+shore. There is nothing remarkable in such a sight as that, but the
+circumstances of this case were peculiar, and so the sight set Charley,
+thinking.
+
+In the first place, he remembered what Ned had told him and Jack about
+the wild cattle on the island, and reflecting that it had been a good
+many years since the original stock of animals were abandoned, he could
+not help regarding this yearling bullock as something more than a mere
+bullock. It was game; a wild animal roaming at will over unoccupied
+lands, and to kill it would be quite as good sport as deer-stalking or
+bear-hunting.
+
+Then, too, Charley and his companions were really in sore need of meat.
+An exclusive diet of fish, oysters, and other such things soon wearies
+the palate, and becomes exceedingly distasteful. It is true that Ned's
+turtle had somewhat broken this monotony, but the relief had been only
+partial, and the boys very eagerly craved meat--beef, mutton, or pork.
+They had made no effort to get such meat, only because they had no idea
+that any such was to be had.
+
+The snake dinner had never been repeated. It is true that the snake was
+savory, and the boys had spoken truthfully when they declared themselves
+pleased with it. But that was while their hunger lasted, and when they
+had finished they had no longer a keen appetite to oppose to prejudice,
+so that, with full stomachs, the old objections returned, and all three
+boys were seized with a peculiar loathing for the food they had eaten.
+Perhaps it was only because they had eaten too much; but, whatever the
+reason was, the fact remained that they were all sickened by the thought
+of what they had eaten, and, while they said nothing about this feeling,
+no one of them ever proposed to repeat the experiment of eating snake.
+
+Now Charley meant to have an abundance of meat against which no such
+objection could be urged. Here was a fat young steer whose beef was to
+be had for the taking. How to get it was at first a perplexing question.
+There was no gun with which to shoot the bullock, and there were no dogs
+in camp with which to chase it; but after some reflection Master Charley
+was confident that he could kill the animal with the means at disposal.
+
+He said nothing about either his discovery or his purpose when his
+companions returned to camp, because he wished to give them a complete
+surprise.
+
+He merely said that he wanted to make a little hunting expedition, and
+that perhaps he might succeed in knocking over a rabbit or some other
+animal good to eat. His companions had little hope of any such good
+luck, but they offered no objection, and Charley, arming himself with
+the hunting-knife and the hatchet, set forth on his quest.
+
+He found the bullock not far from the place at which he had seen it
+before, quietly browsing in the edge of the timber. After carefully
+reconnoitering the position, Charley went into the woods and crept upon
+the animal very cautiously through the thick undergrowth. His plan was
+to creep up in this way until he should be within a few feet of his
+prey, and then, springing forward suddenly, to strike the bullock
+between his young horns with the hatchet. Charley had seen a butcher
+kill a large steer by a comparatively slight blow, delivered at the
+right place on the animal's head, and he was very sure that he knew
+where to strike.
+
+As he crept up he carefully avoided making any kind of noise, but when
+within a dozen feet of the place from which he meant to spring, he made
+a misstep, broke a stick, and alarmed the bullock, which quietly trotted
+away.
+
+Charley was disappointed, but by no means disheartened. He had only to
+begin over again, and proceed more cautiously next time. He crept very
+slowly and consumed nearly half an hour in his approach. This time he
+broke no sticks and made no noise of any kind. Nearer and nearer he
+drew. He could hear the bullock's breathing, but still he must get
+nearer. A log lay just in front of him, and he could not well spring
+over it before striking, without alarming the animal and missing his
+aim. He must creep around this obstruction first, and this he did
+successfully, but the bullock, though not alarmed, moved away just
+before Charley reached a position from which to strike. It did not run,
+but quietly walked away to nibble some grass which grew at a spot a
+dozen paces distant.
+
+This second disappointment shook Charley's already strained nerves
+considerably, but, impatient as he now was, he controlled himself and
+resumed his silent advance. Luckily the animal's head was turned
+directly away from him, and that fact greatly lessened the danger of his
+discovery. His chance was now so good, indeed, that a few moments more
+might have brought his attempt to a completely successful issue, if he
+had been content to follow his original plan. But just as he was in the
+act of springing forward to deliver his blow, with every prospect of
+success, a new thought struck Charley. It was easy to spring upon the
+bullock's back, and from that point Charley thought he could deal not
+one, but many successive blows, thus making sure work of what might not
+otherwise be sure.
+
+Accordingly he leaped upon the animal's back, and as he did so the
+startled creature sprang forward through the bushes, nearly unseating
+his rider. The blow which Charley tried to deliver was a disastrous
+failure. He missed the brute's head, and the hatchet slipping from his
+hand, was hurled into the thicket.
+
+Charley had no time to think of the hatchet, however. The infuriated
+bullock plunged headlong through the thicket and then across an open
+glade and into the woods again, going in the direction of the camp, and
+Charley had all that he could do to keep his seat. He was beaten black
+and blue by the saplings encountered; his face was scratched, and his
+clothes torn almost to shreds. Still, seeing that the bullock was going
+toward the camp, he held on, with an unreasoning impression that, once
+at the camp, the animal would be secured.
+
+Jack and Ned happened to be outside the stockade when Charley came
+dashing past, but of course they could do nothing, and a moment after
+they caught sight of their companion, he was swept from his seat by an
+overhanging branch of a tree, and the frightened bullock continued his
+impetuous flight alone.
+
+Jack and Ned hastened to their friend's assistance. For a moment Charley
+seemed stunned, but he soon came to himself sufficiently to ask in a
+querulous tone:
+
+"Why didn't you head him off?"
+
+It was not easy to convince Charley that they had been entirely
+powerless to capture the bullock, so fixed had been his determination to
+secure so valuable a prize; but after a while he began to see matters in
+their true light, and to understand that Ned and Jack could not have
+stopped the animal, even if they had been prepared for his coming, as in
+fact they were not.
+
+Then Charley examined his own bruises, which were pretty severe, though
+no bones were broken.
+
+"The worst of the damage," he said, after awhile, "is the loss of the
+hatchet, and I suppose we shall find that."
+
+[Illustration: THE END OF CHARLEY'S ADVENTURE.]
+
+"Did you lose the hunting-knife too?" asked Jack.
+
+"There!" exclaimed Charley; "what an idiot I am, to be sure! I had that
+in my belt all the time, and I might have got the beef if I had only
+thought to use it!"
+
+This was true enough. While going through the thicket, Charley had
+enough to do to cling to the back of the bullock, but while crossing the
+open glade he might easily have drawn and used the long hunting-knife if
+he had thought of it. But he had not thought of it, and it was now too
+late for the thinking to do any good.
+
+"It is just as well as it is," said Ned.
+
+"Just as well!" exclaimed Charley; "well, I don't see that. I don't know
+how it is with you, but for my part, I'd relish a beefsteak just now."
+
+"So would I," answered Ned; "but that yearling isn't ours, and we've no
+right to kill it, I suppose."
+
+"Why not? It's a wild animal, isn't it?"
+
+"I hardly think so. The squatters must have killed all the wild cattle
+long ago, and this tame calf probably belongs to them."
+
+"Well, they helped themselves pretty freely to our things, so I
+shouldn't be a bit sorry if I had killed the animal while I thought it a
+wild one," said Charley, rather ruefully.
+
+The search for the hatchet was a somewhat protracted one, but that
+important tool was found at last, and so, if Charley's effort to
+replenish the camp larder did no good, it at least did no harm beyond
+bruising that young huntsman's limbs, scratching his face, and tearing
+his clothes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE LAUNCH OF THE "APHRODITE."
+
+
+Contrary to their expectations, the boys were left in peace by their
+enemies after that last unsuccessful attempt to burn their camp.
+
+The tar-kiln was promptly rebuilt, and by Saturday night a new supply of
+tar was ready. Early on Monday morning the work of converting this tar
+into pitch, by boiling it, was begun. This was necessarily a slow
+process, because the kettle was small and the space to be covered was
+large, for the plan was to paint the whole outside surface of the boat
+with the pitch, in order to make it as water-tight as possible. As soon
+as the first kettleful of pitch was ready, it was carefully applied
+while smoking hot, care being taken to work it well into the seams. Then
+another kettleful was set to boil, and so the work went slowly forward.
+As the pitch cooled it became hard, like varnish, and the effect was to
+stop all leaks pretty thoroughly.
+
+At first the boat sat right side up, but raised upon the blocks on which
+she had been built, so that it was easy to pass under her; but in
+applying the first kettleful of pitch the boys discovered the
+awkwardness of this position, and determined to turn the _Aphrodite_
+bottom upward, for the sake of convenience. This was a difficult task,
+as the boat was too heavy for the combined strength of the three young
+ship-builders; but it was necessary to accomplish it, and Jack's
+mechanical skill devised means for the purpose. Cutting some long poles
+to serve as levers, and a large number of short, stout sticks, he
+directed his companions to raise one side of the boat with the levers.
+While they held it up he quickly built two cribs of the short sticks,
+one at the bow and the other at the stern, and when the levers were
+removed the boat rested easily upon these. Then a new bight was taken
+with the levers, and the side of the boat was raised a few inches
+further. Building the cribs up to support her in this position, Jack
+directed the boys to repeat the operation again and again, each time
+supporting the boat by increasing the height of the cribs. Finally he
+said:
+
+"Now one more bight will throw her over, but we must get ready first to
+ease her down, or else we shall strain her."
+
+"How can we do it?" asked Ned.
+
+"By setting some poles up at an angle on cribs. I'll show you."
+
+With that he went to the other side of the boat and built some cribs
+about five or six feet away from the gunwale on which the boat rested;
+carrying these up as high as his head, he took a number of straight
+poles and placed their ends on the ground just under the gunwale,
+resting the other ends upon the tall cribs. This made a slanting
+framework, the bottom of which was against one gunwale, while the top
+was not more than a few feet distant from the other edge of the boat.
+
+"Now," he said, when this was done, "she has only to fall a foot or two
+forward; her weight will be on her face then, and we'll ease her down by
+drawing out the crib-sticks."
+
+"I see a better way than that," said Ned.
+
+"Very well. What is it?"
+
+"Let's throw her forward first; then I'll show you."
+
+Resting, as the boat was, almost upon her gunwale, it was easy to push
+her forward, and when that was done she was a little more than half-way
+over.
+
+"Now," said Ned, "instead of lowering that upper gunwale, let's lift the
+lower one with the levers, and block it up. We needn't raise it more
+than a foot; then she'll show her whole under-side to us just as well as
+if she lay flat on her face."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, after studying the matter, "and it will be all the
+easier to turn her back again."
+
+"Have we got to turn her back again?" asked Charley, whose arms and back
+had been pretty severely taxed in the effort to reverse the position of
+the boat.
+
+"Well, no," said Ned, "not if we can make up our minds to launch her,
+bottom upward, and to ride back to Bluffton on her keel. Otherwise we
+must turn her right side up before we launch her."
+
+"It won't be hard to turn her back, Charley," said Jack. "She'll be
+nearly on edge, you see, and it won't require lifting--only a little
+pushing. But come, let's raise this gunwale. Six inches will do, I
+think."
+
+One more application of the levers served the purpose, and the work of
+applying the pitch was resumed.
+
+No other difficult problem presented itself, and by noon on Thursday the
+pitching was complete. Before turning the _Aphrodite_ back again, Jack
+and his companions cut some long, straight poles, and made an inclined
+plane of them from the blocks on which the boat rested to the water.
+They removed all the bark from these poles, so that they should be as
+smooth as possible.
+
+Then the boat was turned back into position, her side toward the water.
+It was necessary now to lift her up until her keel should rest upon the
+inclined plane, down which she was to slide, of her own weight, into the
+sea. This was a somewhat difficult task, requiring the use of the levers
+and a good deal of blocking up as the levers raised the boat, inch by
+inch. It was accomplished at last, however, and, suffering neither
+strain nor other injury, the _Aphrodite_ slipped into the sea, and rode
+gracefully upon the water.
+
+"Three cheers for the new boat!" cried Charley, and with a will they
+were given.
+
+"Now, then," said Ned, "we can begin to see the end of our adventures.
+Let's see. We've only to make some oars, and then we can be off."
+
+"When shall we start?" asked Jack.
+
+"Well, this is Thursday evening. We can finish three oars--two for
+rowing and one for steering--by to-morrow evening."
+
+"Then we can make an early start on Saturday morning," said Jack.
+
+"Not very well," said Ned. "The tide will be against us until about one
+o'clock or half-past, and the _Aphrodite_ is too heavy for two oars
+against tide."
+
+"Why can't all three row?" asked Charley, who persistently refused to
+understand any thing about the management of boats.
+
+"Because then we should have two oars on one side and only one on the
+other, and we'd go around in a circle. We can only use two oars, while
+the odd fellow steers. We'll be able to rest in that way, too, by taking
+the steering-oar turn and turn about."
+
+"Then we'll get away when the tide turns on Saturday," said Jack.
+
+"Yes, or a little before,--say at noon. That will give us plenty of
+time."
+
+"And we'll get back to Bluffton," said Charley, "exactly at the time
+appointed with Maum Sally, I wonder if she'll have some supper ready for
+us."
+
+"If she don't she'll have to get some pretty quick," said Ned. "I won't
+let her scold me till she sets supper before us, and she won't be happy
+till she gives me a good 'settin' to rights,' as she calls it."
+
+"Hadn't we better wait until we get to Bluffton before we order that
+supper?" said Jack; "there's 'many a slip,' you know."
+
+"What a croaker you're getting to be, Jack!" exclaimed Charley. "What's
+to bother us now, I'd like to know? We've got a good boat, we can make
+oars to-morrow, and Ned knows the way."
+
+"Oh, certainly!" replied Jack. "I suppose we shall get there safely, and
+I'm not in the least disposed to croak. I only thought that you and Ned
+were a trifle hasty in your assumption that every thing is to go
+perfectly smooth with us. For the last month things have had a pretty
+fixed habit of going the other way."
+
+"Well, but we've conquered our difficulties now, and there's nothing
+that I can think of to stand in the way of our getting off at the
+appointed time. And if we leave here at noon on Saturday, what can
+happen to prevent our arrival at Bluffton that evening?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," said Jack; "nothing at all, I hope. But when I
+think what a chapter of accidents we've been through, I am disposed to
+wait till I see Maum Sally, before I get my mouth ready for the supper
+she's to cook."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE VOYAGE OF THE "APHRODITE."
+
+
+Saturday dawned soft and warm. After breakfast the boys cooked the few
+provisions that remained, intending to eat their mid-day meal in the
+boat, as a mere luncheon, and to satisfy their appetites with better
+food of Maum Sally's preparing, when they should arrive at Bluffton.
+
+They filled the coffee-pot with drinking water--for the water kegs of
+the _Red Bird_ had been lost in that boat's mishap,--and bestowed their
+other scant belongings on board. The moment that the outgoing tide grew
+slack they began their homeward voyage, giving the old camp three lusty,
+farewell cheers, and parting with their old associations there with a
+touch of real regret.
+
+For the first mile or two Ned and Jack were at the oars. Then Charley
+relieved Ned, as the boat drew out from among the low-lying marsh
+islands into a broad stretch of water.
+
+The wind was blowing in from the sea, not strongly, but steadily, and
+after an hour's rowing Jack saw that Ned was rather uneasily watching
+some light, low-flying banks of mist which were scudding along overhead.
+
+"What is it, Ned?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing of importance--or at least I hope so."
+
+"Well, what is it? Do those little clouds mean rain?"
+
+"I wish they did," said Ned; "but they're not clouds, at least in the
+usual sense, and I'm afraid they don't mean rain."
+
+"Out with it. We're partners in all our joys and sorrows," said Charley,
+"so let's hear all about the clouds that aren't clouds but something
+else. What are they?"
+
+"A sea fog," answered Ned; "this breeze is coming in from the sea laden
+with moisture, and those clouds just above us are banks of fog."
+
+"Well, what of it?"
+
+"We shall be shut in in five minutes," said Ned. "Look! you can't see
+half a mile now, and it is settling right down upon us, growing thicker
+every minute."
+
+It was as Ned said. The wall of thick fog was closing in, and it was
+already impossible to see any thing except the waste of water around
+them. A few minutes later even the water could be seen for only a few
+yards around.
+
+"Lie on your oars, boys," said Ned.
+
+"Why not row on?" asked Charley.
+
+"Because I don't know which way to steer, and rowing may only take us
+out of our course."
+
+"Can't you hold your course straight ahead?"
+
+"No. That would be possible in a fog if rowing always drove a boat
+straight ahead, and if there were no cross currents in the water; but
+both 'ifs' stand in the way. Without a compass nobody can keep a boat in
+any thing like a straight course in such a fog. The tide is running up,
+and so if we don't row at all we shall drift in the right direction, at
+least in a general way, while if we row, we may go all wrong."
+
+"How long is such a fog likely to last?" asked Jack.
+
+"It is impossible to tell. A change in the wind or in the state of the
+atmosphere may clear it away at any moment; or it may last a week."
+
+"A week!" exclaimed Charley; "what shall we do if it does? We haven't an
+ounce of food left, and only a little water," looking into the
+coffee-pot.
+
+"We needn't manage the whole week this afternoon," said Jack. "It will
+be better to keep cool and do the best thing that can be done every
+minute. Just now, Ned says, the best thing is to drift with the tide, so
+we'll drift, and wait, and keep our wits about us so as to see any
+chance that offers for doing better."
+
+Jack spoke in a cheerful voice, and his tone of courage served to brace
+his companions somewhat, but it was plain to all three that their
+position was really one of great danger and uncertainty. It was Jack's
+excellent habit, however, to grow strong and courageous in difficulty or
+danger; he never allowed himself to become panic-stricken, or to do
+foolish, frantic things.
+
+"Jack," said Charley after a while, "I don't believe there's any whine
+in you."
+
+"I don't know," replied Jack; "I hope there isn't. What good would
+whining do?"
+
+An hour passed, and still the fog grew thicker. Another hour; the breeze
+had ceased to blow, and the gray mist lay like a blanket over the water.
+It seemed piled in thick layers, one on top of another. It was so dense
+that it could be seen floating between one of the boys and another, like
+smoke from a cigar. The boys could see its slow writhing and twisting in
+the still air, moved as it was only by their breath, or by the
+occasional movements of their bodies. It would have been impossible in
+such a fog to see a ship twenty feet distant.
+
+For still another hour and another the boys sat still in the boat,
+rarely speaking or in any way breaking the awful silence of the
+fog-bound solitude.
+
+At last Ned bent his head down close to the gunwale to scan the surface
+of the water.
+
+"I see marsh grass here," he said, "but it is completely under water.
+Watch for any that shows above the surface, and if you see any catch
+hold of it and hold on."
+
+The boys bent over, one on one side, the other on the other. Presently
+the protruding tops of the tall marsh grass appeared above the water,
+and seemed to float slowly by. Several times Jack and Charley caught
+small bunches of it, but the impetus of the drifting boat was too great,
+and the grass was pulled up from the muddy bottom. After a little while,
+the water growing shallower, the grass showed higher above the surface,
+while it increased also in quantity, impeding the motion of the boat.
+Then each of the boys seized a bunch and the boat was brought to a
+stand.
+
+"There, that's better," said Ned, as the motion of the boat ceased.
+
+"Why don't you want to drift?" asked Jack.
+
+"Because it is about the turn of the tide," answered Ned, "and I don't
+want to drift in the wrong direction."
+
+"Then why didn't you cast anchor when you first saw from the grass that
+we were in shallow water?"
+
+"Because I don't want to be caught here on a marsh island if I can help
+it."
+
+"I don't understand," said Jack.
+
+"Well, you see it is about high tide now, and we have drifted upon one
+of the many mud banks covered with this marsh grass. Some of them are
+covered with water at high tide, as this one is, but quite bare when
+the tide is out. When I saw that we were drifting over one I wanted to
+stop the boat, to avoid being carried back again toward the sea; but
+we're in danger of getting left here high and dry on a mud bank when the
+tide runs out, and that would be a bad fix to get into. So instead of
+dropping anchor, we'll simply hold on by the grass, and as the tide goes
+out we'll try to work off into deeper water."
+
+"I see," said Jack.
+
+"I wish I could, then," said Charley, who had recovered his spirits; "if
+I could see I'd steer for Bluffton."
+
+"Come, Charley," said Ned, "this is no joking matter, I can assure you.
+It's growing quite dark now, and unless the fog lifts very soon we may
+be stuck here in the mud, for the night at least; suppose you give her a
+few stokes with the oars, boys; the tide is falling rapidly, and we must
+get off this bank."
+
+The boys rowed slowly, Ned steering and watching the water. It grew
+steadily shallower, so he turned the boat about, convinced that the
+direction he had taken was toward the centre of the bank, instead of
+toward the deep water. He had not gone far in the new direction
+however, before the keel scraped the mud, and another change had to be
+made in the course. Still the keel scraped, in whatever direction he
+turned.
+
+"Pull away with all your might, boys!" he cried; "if we don't reach deep
+water in five minutes we're stuck!"
+
+Jack and Charley bent to their oars, and for a few minutes the boat
+slipped forward through the tall marsh grass. But her keel was dragging
+in the soft mud, and as the tide was rapidly running out, the boat sank
+deeper every minute.
+
+"Pull away, as hard as you can!" cried Ned, seeing that the speed was
+rapidly growing less. "Here, you're exhausted, Jack; let me take your
+oar. Now, Charley, give it to her!"
+
+The oarsmen bent to their work with the strength of desperation, but the
+keel was now completely buried in the mud, and the whole bottom of the
+boat rested in the slimy ooze. Do what they would, the boys could drive
+her no further.
+
+"Stuck!" cried Jack.
+
+"Yes, stuck, fairly stuck, and in for a night of it, fog or no fog,"
+said Ned.
+
+"What's to be done?" asked Charley.
+
+"Nothing now, except go to sleep if we can. It's so cold and raw that
+we'll find that pretty hard work. I wish we had brought a lot of moss
+for blankets."
+
+"But what if the fog lifts in the night?" asked Charley.
+
+"Well, what if it does? We can do nothing now till the tide comes in
+to-morrow morning. We're high and dry now, and the tide will continue to
+run out until one or two o'clock to-night. Then it will turn, but we
+shan't be afloat again till very nearly high tide,--say about seven or
+eight o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "and as we have eaten nearly nothing since morning,
+and have nothing to eat till we get to Bluffton, we shall need all the
+strength we can get from sleep. So let's sleep if we can."
+
+Bestowing themselves as comfortably as they could, the three worn-out,
+half-famished lads did their best to sleep; but there was very little
+chance of that. No sooner had they ceased to exert themselves, than the
+penetrating cold of the fog, which had already saturated their scanty
+clothing, made them shiver and shake as with an ague fit.
+
+They were obliged occasionally to go to the oars for exercise, in order
+to keep their blood in circulation, and so there was no chance of any
+thing like sleep beyond an occasional cat nap. Not long before dawn it
+began to rain, and Ned, who had been dozing, suddenly sprang up, crying
+out:
+
+"What's that? Rain? Good!"
+
+"Why, 'good'?" asked Charley, shivering; "I'm damp enough already."
+
+"Good, because if it rains hard the fog will disappear."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it will be converted into rain, and fall. A fog disappears
+always either by rising and floating away, or by falling in the shape of
+rain; and this one means to fall, I should say, if I may judge by the
+way it is coming down now."
+
+It had, indeed, begun to pour. The condition of the boys was thus
+rendered still more uncomfortable than before, but at least their
+prospects were brightened by way of compensation, and as the steady
+downpour cleared the air of the dense fog, their spirits bounded up
+again in spite of all the discomforts of their situation.
+
+"I say, Jack," said Charley, "are you a prophet or a weather witch?"
+
+"Neither, so far as I am informed," replied Jack; "why do you ask?"
+
+"Only because I suspect that you either foresaw this fog or created it."
+
+"I don't see the force of your suspicion," said Jack.
+
+"Don't you remember how you croaked about slips between the cup and the
+lip when Ned and I were so sure of getting to Bluffton?"
+
+"Yes, of course; but I didn't really expect any thing of this nature. I
+only spoke generally."
+
+"Out of the abundance of your wisdom. But I won't make fun, for you were
+right."
+
+"And, besides," said Ned, "the situation just now isn't a bit funny.
+There's a young river running down my back, and I'm in for a good
+scolding from Maum Sally when I see her. She'll scold me for overstaying
+my time, for wrecking the boat, for losing my boots, for spoiling my
+clothes, and for every thing else she can think of. And yet, though
+you'll hardly believe it, I heartily wish I could be sure of getting
+that scolding very early this morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+MAUM SALLY.
+
+
+Daylight came about five o'clock, and Ned made use of the earliest light
+for looking about him and determining his position. So buried was the
+boat in the tall marsh grass, that he had to stand upon the highest part
+of the bow in order to see at all. At first he could make out very
+little, but as it grew lighter--for, the rain having ceased, the light
+gained rapidly toward six o'clock--he was able to make out the bearings
+pretty well.
+
+"I say, fellows," he said, turning to his companions, "we made a centre
+shot. If we had tried, in the broadest light of the clearest day, we
+couldn't have put the _Aphrodite_ more exactly in the middle of this
+marsh bank."
+
+Further inspection showed that this judgment was accurate. The boat lay
+precisely in the middle of the little island, which stretched away two
+or three hundred yards on each side.
+
+The tide had risen enough by half-past six for the water to lick the
+sides of the boat, but it would be a full hour or more before the
+_Aphrodite_ would float up out of the mud, and even then it would be
+necessary to wait awhile longer for deeper water, before trying to push
+her great bulk through the rank marsh grass.
+
+"Why not hurry matters by getting out and pushing the empty boat?" asked
+impatient Charley, who had already declared himself to be in a state of
+actual starvation.
+
+"Just take one of the oars, Charley," said Ned, "and feel of the bottom
+we should have to walk on."
+
+Charley took the oar, pushed it through the roots of the grass, and
+then, with scarcely an effort, plunged its whole length straight
+downward through the soft mud.
+
+"Ya--as, I see," he drawled, as he drew the oar out again; "it isn't
+precisely the sort of lawn that one would choose for walking about on in
+slippers."
+
+Just then oars were heard, and looking in the direction from which the
+sound came, Ned suddenly cried out:
+
+"Hi! Maum Sally! Hi there! Here we are, out here in the marsh!" Then
+turning to his companions, he said:
+
+"It's Maum Sally in the little boat. I wonder where she's going this
+early on Sunday morning."
+
+[Illustration: "HI! MAUM SALLY!"]
+
+Maum Sally did not leave him long in doubt on this head. Rowing her boat
+as far into the grass and as near to them as she could, she came to a
+stop at about a hundred and fifty yards from the _Aphrodite_. Then
+standing up in her boat, placing her bare arms akimbo, and tossing her
+red-turbaned head back, she began:
+
+"Now, look heah, young Ned! What you mean by dis heah sort o' doins?
+Didn't you promise me faithful to be back agin in a month? An' ain't de
+month done gone, an' heah you is a idlin' about on a ma'sh, an' it
+Sunday mawnin' too? Jes' you come straight 'long home now."
+
+After she had spent her first breath in a tirade which was half scolding
+and half coddling,--for that was always her way with Ned, whom she had
+spoiled all his life, from the cradle upward,--she paused long enough
+for Ned to explain that he and his companions could not go to her until
+the tide should rise at least a foot more.
+
+"Now listen, boys," he said; "she'll keep it up till the rising tide
+brings her to us, and we're in for an hour of it."
+
+"Why not persuade her to go back and get breakfast ready by the time we
+get there?" asked Jack.
+
+"Go back? Not she. My month was up yesterday, and as I didn't put in an
+appearance, she set out to find me and bring me home this morning, and
+you just bet she won't go home without me. She'll row this way as fast
+as the rising water will let her, and she'll keep on scolding and
+coddling me all the time. Then she'll jump in here and hug me as if I
+were her long-lost baby boy. Hear her!"
+
+Maum Sally fulfilled Ned's prediction to the letter. As she drew nearer,
+and made out the forlorn condition of the young Crusoes, discovering,
+little by little, how ragged they were, she scolded more and more
+savagely, while Ned laughed and heartily enjoyed it all, taking pains to
+direct her attention to the various losses he had sustained, and hinting
+now and then at the difficulties he had encountered and the dangers he
+had passed. Each word of his gave Maum Sally a new theme for her
+scolding, and as the little boat pushed itself up to the big one she
+leaped from the one into the other, changing her tone, manner, and
+expression in the very middle of a sentence, somewhat thus:
+
+"I tell you, young Ned, ef I gits my han's on you, you ugly, provokin',
+no 'count young scape--darlin', blessed boy, aint ole Sally happy to git
+her arms roun' you agin, and hug you jis like you was a baby agin; an'
+now I's got you safe in these arms agin, I tell you I's happy."
+
+The sudden change in the sentence occurred just as Maum Sally stepped
+from one boat into the other, and fell upon Ned with that savage fury of
+affection which only a dear old black nurse can feel.
+
+To row out of the marsh when the water grew a little deeper, and then to
+row home to a late but toothsome breakfast, was easy enough now. Then a
+long day of complete rest followed, and the whole story of the wreck of
+the _Red Bird_ was a memory merely.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wreck of The Red Bird, by George Cary Eggleston
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40941 ***