The Secret Island (4 page)

Willow House is Finished

The next day, after a meal of fish and lettuce, the children were ready to go on with the building of their house in the willow thicket. It was lucky that Jack had caught more fish on his line that morning, for stores were getting low. There were still plenty of potatoes, but not much else. Jack made up his mind that he would have to take the boat and see what he could bring back in it that night. There was no doubt but that food was going to be their great difficulty.

All morning the four children worked hard at the house. Jack cut down enough young willows to make the walls. Mike dug the holes to drive in the willow stakes. He and Jack drove them deeply in, and the girls jumped for joy to see what fine straight walls of willow the boys were making.

The willow stakes were set a little way apart, and Jack showed the girls how to take thin, supple willow branches and weave them in and out of the stakes to hold the walls in place, and to fill up the gaps It was quite easy to do this when they knew how, but they got very hot.

Mike went up and down to the spring a down times that morning to fetch water! They all drank pints of it, and were glad of its coldness. The sun was really very hot, though it was nice and shady in the green willow thicket.

“It begins to look like a house now,” said Jack, pleased. “Look, this front gap here is where we shall have the door. We can make that later of long stakes interwoven with willow strips, and swing it on some sort of a hinge so that it opens and shuts. But we don’t need a door at present.”

That day all the walls were finished, and the girls had gone a good way towards weaving the stakes together so that the walls stood firmly and looked nice and thick.

“In the olden days people used to fill up the gaps with clay and let it dry hard,” said Jack. “But I don’t think there’s any clay on this island, so we must stuff up the cracks with dried bracken and heather. That will do nicely. And the willow stakes we have rammed into the ground will grow, and throw out leaves later on, making the wall thicker still.”

“How do you mean - the stakes we have cut will grow?” asked Mike in surprise. “Sticks don’t grow, surely!”

Jack grinned. “Willow sticks do!” he said. “You can cut a willow branch off the tree - strip it of all buds and leaves, and stick it in the ground, and you’ll find that, although it has no roots, and no shoots - it will put out both and grow into a willow-tree by itself! Willows are full of life, and you can’t stamp it out of them!”

“Well - our house will be growing all the year round, then!” cried Nora. “How funny!”

“I think it’s lovely!” said Peggy. “I like things to be as alive as that. I shall love to live in a house that’s growing over me - putting out roots and shoots and buds and leaves! What shall we call our house, Jack?”

“Willow House!” said Jack. “That’s the best name for it!”

“It’s a good name,” said Peggy. “I like it. I like everything here. It’s glorious. Just us four - and our secret island. It’s the loveliest adventure that ever was!”

“If only we had more to eat!” said Mike, who seemed to feel hungry every hour of the day. “That’s the only thing I don’t like about this adventure!”

“Yes,” said Jack. “We’ll have to put that right! Don’t worry. We shall get over it somehow!”

That night there was nothing much to eat but potatoes. Jack said he would go off in the boat as soon as it was dark, to see what he could find at his old farm.

So he set off. He took with him a candle, set in the lantern, but he did not light it in case he should be seen.

“Wait up for me,” he said to the others, “and keep a small fire going - not big, in case the glow could be seen.”

The other three waited patiently for Jack to come back. He seemed a long, long time. Nora stretched herself out on the old rug and fell asleep. But Mike and Peggy kept awake. They saw the moon come up and light everything. The secret island seemed mysterious again in the moonlight. Dark shadows stretched beneath the trees. The water lapped against the sand, black as night, close by them, but silvered where the moon caught it beyond. It was a warm night, and the children were hot, even though they had no covering.

It seemed hours before they heard the splash of oars. Mike ran down to the edge of the water and waited. He saw the boat coming softly over the water in the moonlight. He called Jack.

“Hallo, there, Jack! Are you all right?”

“Yes,” said Jack’s voice. “I’ve got plenty of news too!”

The boat scraped on the sand and stones. Mike pulled it up the beach, and Jack jumped out.

“I’ve got something here for us!” said Jack, and they saw his white teeth in the moonlight as he grinned at them. “Put your hands down there in the boat, Nora.”

Nora did - and squealed!

“There’s something soft and warm and feathery there!” she said. “What is it?”

“Six of my hens!” said Jack; I found them roosting in the hedges! I caught them and trussed them up so that they couldn’t move! My word, they were heavy to carry! But we shall have plenty of eggs now! They can’t escape from the island!”

“Hurrah!” cried Peggy. “We can have eggs for breakfast, dinner, and tea!”

“What else have you brought?” asked Mike.

“Corn for the hens,” said Jack. “And packets of seeds of all kinds from the shed. And some tins of milk. And a loaf of bread, rather stale. And lots more vegetables!”

“And here are some cherries,” said Nora, pulling out handfuls of red cherries from the boat. “Did you pick these, Jack?”

“Yes,” said Jack. “They are from the tree in our garden. It’s full of them now.”

“Did. you see your grandfather?” asked Mike.

“Yes,” grinned Jack, “but he didn’t see me! He’s going away - to live with my aunt. The farm is to be shut up, and someone is to feed the animals until it’s sold. So I think I shall try and get my own cow somehow, and make her swim across the lake to the island!”

“Don’t be silly, Jack,” said Peggy. “You could never do that!”

“You don’t know what I can do!” said Jack. “Well, listen - I heard my Granddad talking to two friends of his, and everyone is wondering where we’ve all gone! They’ve searched everywhere for us - in all the nearby towns and villages, and in all the country round about!”

“Oooh!” said the three children, feeling rather frightened. “Do you suppose they’ll come here?”

“Well, they may,” said Jack. “You never know. I’ve always been a bit afraid that the smoke from our fire will give the game away to someone. But don’t let’s worry about that till it happens.”

“Are the police looking for us, too?” asked Peggy.

“Oh yes,” said Jack. “Everyone is, as far as I can make out. 1 heard Grandchd tell how they’ve searched barns and stacks and ditches, and gone to every town for twenty miles round, thinking we might have run away on a lorry. They don’t guess how near we are!”

“Is Aunt Harriet very upset?” asked Peggy.

“Very!” grinned Jack. “She’s got no one to wash and scrub and cook for her now! But that’s all she cares, I expect! Well, it’s good news about my Granddad going to live with my aunt. I can slip to and fro and not be seen by him now. My word, I wished Mike was with me when I got these hens. They did peck and scratch and flap about. I was afraid someone would hear them.”

“Where shall we put them?” said Mike, helping Jack to carry them up the beach.

“I vote we put them into Willow House till the morning,” said Jack. “We can stop up the doorway with something.”

So they bundled the squawking hens into Willow House, and stopped up the doorway with sticks and bracken. The hens fled to a corner and squatted there, terrified. They made no more noise.

“I’m jolly tired,” said Jack. “Let’s have a few cherries and go to bed.”

They munched the ripe cherries, and then went to their green bedroom. The bracken which they had picked and put on the hillside to dry had been quite brown and withered by that afternoon, so the girls had added it to their bed and the boys’, and tonight their beds seemed even softer and sweeter-smelling than usual. They were all tired. Mike and Jack talked for a little while, but the girls went to sleep quickly.

They slept late the next morning. Peggy woke first, and sat up, wondering what the unusual noise was that she heard. It was a loud cackling.

“Of course! The hens!” she thought. She slipped off her bracken-and-heather bed, jumped lightly over the two sleeping boys and ran to Willow House. She pulled aside the doorway and squeezed inside. The hens fled to a corner when they saw her, but Peggy saw a welcome sight!

Four of the hens had laid eggs! Goody! Now they could have a fine breakfast! The little girl gathered them up quickly, then, stopping up the doorway again, she ran out. She soon had a fire going, and, when the others sat up, rubbing their eyes, Peggy called them.

“Come on! Breakfast! The hens have laid us an egg each!”

They ran to breakfast. “We’ll have a dip afterwards,” said Mike. “I feel so hungry.”

“We must finish Willow House properly to-day,” said Jack. “And we must decide what to do with the hens, too. They can’t run loose till they know us and their new home. We must put up some sort of enclosure for them.”

After breakfast the four of them set to work to make a tiny yard for the hens. They used willow stakes again and quickly built a fine little fence, too high for the hens to jump over. Jack made them nesting-places of bracken, and hoped they would lay their eggs there. He scattered some seed for them, and they pecked at it eagerly. Peggy gave them a dish of water.

“They will soon know this is their home and lay their eggs here,” said Jack. “Now, come on, let’s get on with Willow House! You two girls stuff up the cracks with heather and bracken, and Mike and I will make the door.”

Everyone worked hard. The girls found it rather a nice job to stuff the soft heather and bracken into the cracks and make the house rain-and wind-proof. They were so happy in their job that they did not notice what a fine door Jack and Mike had made of woven willow twigs. The boys called the girls, and proudly showed them what they had done.

The door had even been fixed on some sort of a hinge, so that it swung open and shut! It looked fine! It did not quite fit at the top, but nobody minded that. It was a door - and could be shut or opened, just as they pleased. Willow House was very dark inside when the door was shut - but that made it all the more exciting!

“I’m so hungry and thirsty now that I believe I could eat all the food we’ve got!” said Mike at last.

“Yes, we really must have something to eat,” said Jack. “We’ve got plenty of bread and potatoes and vegetables. Let’s cook some broad beans. They are jolly good. Go and look at my fishing-line, Mike, and see if there are any fish on it.”

There was a fine trout, and Mike brought it back to cook. Soon the smell of frying rose on the air, and the children sniffed hungrily. Fish, potatoes, bread, beans, cherries, and cocoa with milk from one of Jack’s tins. What a meal!

“I’ll think about getting Daisy the cow across next,” said Jack, drinking his cocoa. “We simply must have milk.”

“And, Jack, we could store some of our things in Willow House now, couldn’t we?” said Peggy. “The ants get into some of the things in the cave-larder. It’s a good place for things like hammers and nails, but it would be better to keep our food in Willow House. Are we going to live in Willow House, Jack?”

“Well, we’ll live in the open air mostly, I expect,” said Jack, “but it will be a good place to sleep in when the nights are cold and rainy, and a fine shelter on bad days. It’s our sort of home.”

“It’s a lovely home,” said Nora; “the nicest there ever was! What fun it is to live like this!”

The Cow Comes to the Island

A day or two went by. The children were busy, for there seemed lots of things to do. The door of Willow House came off and had to be put on again more carefully. One of the hens escaped, and the four children spent nearly the whole morning looking for it. Jack found it at last under a gorse bush, where it had laid a big brown egg.

They made the fence of the hen-yard a bit higher, thinking that the hen had been able to jump over. But Mike found a hole in the fence through which he was sure the hen had squeezed, and very soon it was blocked up with fronds of bracken. The hens squawked and clucked, but they seemed to be settling down, and always ran eagerly to Nora when she fed them twice a day.

Mike thought it would he a good idea to make two rooms inside Willow House, instead of one big room. The front part could be a sort of living-room, with the larder in a corner, and the back part could be a bedroom, piled with heather and bracken to make soft lying. So they worked at a partition made of willow, and put it up to make two rooms. They left a doorway between, but did not make a door. It was nice to have a two-roomed house!

One evening Jack brought something unusual to the camp-fire on the little beach. Mike stared at what he was carrying.

“You’ve caught some rabbits!” he said, “and you’ve skinned them, too, and got them ready for cooking!”

“Oh, Jack!” said Nora. “Must you catch those dear little rabbits? I do love them so much, and it is such fun to watch them playing about round us in the evenings.”

“I know,” said Jack, “but we must have meat to eat sometimes, Now, don’t worry, Nora - they did not suffer any pain and you know you have often eaten rabbit-pie at home.”

All the same, none of the children enjoyed cooking the rabbits, though they couldn’t help being glad of a change of food. They were getting a little tired of fish. Nora said she felt as if she couldn’t look a rabbit in the face that evening!

“In Australia, rabbits are as much of a pest as rats are here,” said Jack, who seemed to know all sorts of things. “If we were in Australia we would think we had done a good deed to get rid of a few pests.”

“But we’re not in Australia,” said Peggy. Nobody said any more, and the meal was finished in silence. The girls washed up as usual, and the boys went to get some water from the spring ready to boil in the morning. Then they all had a dip in the lake.

“I think I’ll have a shot at getting my cow along tonight,” said Jack, as they dressed themselves again.