A Little Maid of Province Town Part 9

"n.o.body can find us to-night," said Anne, "but prob'ly to-morrow morning, first thing, my Uncle Enos and your father will take a boat and come sailing right down after us."

"How will they know where we are?" whimpered Amanda. "We'll have to stay here always; I know we shall."

"If we do I'll build a brush house," said Amos hopefully, "and there's lots of beach-plums grow on this island, I've heard folks say; and we'll cook those fish and I'll bet I can find mussels along the sh.o.r.e."

"We can't cook anything," said Anne, "for we can't make any fire."

"I can make a fire when things get dry," said Amos; "how do you suppose Indians make fires when they are off like this? An Indian doesn't care where he is because he knows how to get things to eat and how to cook them, and how to make a shelter. I've wished lots of times that I'd had the chances to learn things that Indians have."

The boat proved a shelter against the wind, and the long night wore slowly away. Amos slept soundly, but neither Anne nor Amanda could sleep, except in short naps from which they quickly awakened. The storm ceased in the night and the sun came up and sent its warm beams down on the shivering children, who crept out from the dory and ran and jumped about on the sand until they were quite warm and very hungry.

Amos went searching along the sh.o.r.e for the round dark-sh.e.l.led mussels which he knew were good to eat, and Anne and Amanda went up toward the thick-growing bushes beyond the sand-banks to look for beach-plums.

"Look, Anne! Look! Did you ever see so many on one bush?" exclaimed Amanda, and the bush was indeed well filled with the appetizing fruit.

"We must take a lot to Amos," said Anne, "for he is getting mussels for us now."

"Yes, indeed," agreed Amanda; "do you suppose they will come after us this morning, Anne?"

"Of course they will, first thing," replied Anne hopefully, so that Amanda grew more cheerful, and when they got back to the boat with ap.r.o.ns full of beach-plums and found Amos waiting for them with a fine lot of fresh mussels they quite forgot to be troubled or unhappy. The sun was shining brightly, the blue water looked calm and smooth, and the wind had entirely gone. They ate the plums and mussels hungrily.

"We'd better look around a little," said Amos, when they had finished, "and see if we can find a good place for a brush house. We ought to build it near the sh.o.r.e so that we can keep a watch for any pa.s.sing boat."

"Won't father find us to-day?" asked Amanda anxiously.

"Can't tell," replied her brother; "anyway we want to get ready to build a house, for we might have to stay here a week."

"I believe you want to stay a week, Amos Cary!" exclaimed his sister.

"I'd just as soon stay as not," said Amos, "if I can find some rotten wood like the Indians use to start a fire; but it isn't much use to look for it until things begin to dry up."

Amos, followed closely by the little girls, went up the bank and toward a place where grew a thicket of small pines. "We can break off a lot of these branches and carry them down to the sh.o.r.e," he said, "and fix some beds of them under one side of the dory. It will be better than sleeping on the sand."

They made several trips back and forth to the boat with armfuls of pine boughs until they each had quite a pile, long and wide enough for a bed, and high enough to keep them well off the sand. But Amos was not satisfied.

"This sand-bank makes a good back for a house," he said; "now if we could only build up sides, and fix some kind of a roof, it would make a fine house."

"Won't the dory do for one side?" asked Anne.

"No," said Amos, "but we can pile up heaps of sand here on each side of our beds, right against this sand-bank, and that will make three sides of a house, and then we'll think of something for the roof."

So they all went to work piling up the sand. It was hard work, and it took a long time before the loose sand could be piled up high enough for Anne and Amanda to crouch down behind.

"I'm dreadful hungry," said Amanda, after they had worked steadily for some time; "let's rest and eat some mussels and beach-plums," and Amos and Anne were both quite ready to stop work.

"It must be past noon now," said Amos, looking at the sun, "and there hasn't a boat come in sight."

Anne had begun to look very serious. "My Aunt Martha may think that I have run away," she said, as they sat leaning back against the piles of warm sand.

"No, she won't," Amos a.s.sured her, "for they'll find out right off that Amanda and I are gone, and father's dory, and it won't take father or Captain Enos long to guess what's happened; only they'll think that we have been carried out to sea."

The little girls were very silent after this, until Amos jumped up saying: "I've just thought of a splendid plan. We'll pile up sand just as high as we can on both sides. Then I'll take those fish-lines and cut them in pieces long enough to reach across from one sand heap to the other, and tie rocks on each end of the lines and put them across."

"I don't think fish-lines will make much of a roof," said Amanda.

"And after I get the lines across," went on Amos, not heeding what his sister had said, "we'll lay these pine boughs across the lines. See? We can have the branches come well over each side and lap one row over another and make a fine roof," and Amos jumped about, greatly pleased with his own invention.

They all returned to piling up sand and before sunset had made walls taller than their heads, and Amos had put the lines across and the covering of pine boughs, so that it was nicely roofed in.

"It will be a lot better than sleeping under the dory," said Anne, as they looked proudly at the little shelter, "and there's pine boughs enough left for beds, too!"

"We can get more to-morrow," said Amos, "and we'll have a fire to-morrow if I can only find some punk, and cook those fish."

"But I want to go home to-morrow," said Amanda; "I know my mother wants me. We've got a boat; can't you make an oar and row us home, Amos?"

"There isn't anything to make an oar out of," answered Amos.

They made their supper on more mussels and beach-plums, and then lay down on their beds of boughs in the little enclosure. They could see the moon shining over the water, the big dory hauled up in front of their shelter, and they all felt very glad that they were not drifting out at sea.

Amos had many plans in his head, and was eager for another day to come that he might carry them out, but Amanda and Anne went to sleep hoping only that the next day would see one of the big fishing-boats of Province Town come sailing up to the island to take them safely home.

CHAPTER IX

THE CASTAWAYS

"My, it was cold last night," shivered Amanda, as she and Anne went toward the spring of fresh water which bubbled up near the sh.o.r.e for their morning drink. "I do wish Amos would plan some way to get us home to-day."

"How can he?" asked Anne; "he hasn't any oars, and see what a long way it is across the water to Long Point. He couldn't swim that far."

"Yes, he could, too," declared Amanda, "and when the tide is out the water is so shallow that you can see the yellow sand shining through. He could swim some and walk some, and he'd get over there all right; then he could walk home and tell father and Captain Enos and they would come right after us."

"Why doesn't he go then?" questioned Anne. "I do know that my Aunt Martha is sadly worried; it is full two days since we set forth."

"Amos likes to stay here," said Amanda, lowering her voice to a whisper; "he thinks it is fun to live as Indians do, and he doesn't want to go home. If he gets enough to eat he'll stay and stay, and then he can tell Jimmie Starkweather of being wrecked on an island."

"Couldn't we get across to Long Point?" asked Anne.

"No. We can't swim, and 'twould be foolish to try," answered Amanda.

"We'll have cooked fish for dinner," said Amos as they ate beach-plums for breakfast. "I'm sure I can find some punk somewhere on this island, and while I am looking for it you girls gather all the dry twigs you can find, make a good-sized hole in the sand and fill it up with dry stuff that will take fire quickly, and I'll show you how Indians cook."

"I'd rather have some Indian meal mush," replied Amanda; "can't you swim across to Long Point, Amos, and hurry home and send some one after us?"

Amos looked at her in astonishment, and then smiled broadly. "I know a better way than that," he said, and without waiting to answer the girl's eager questions he ran off toward the thicket of pines.