Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, Helen Sewell Read Free Book Online

really.”
    “Wait until I tie my blue handkerchief to a stick,” cried Jean. “Now! I strike this flag into the soil of Baby Island and take possession of this stream and this island in the name of the President of the United States and Mary and Jean Wallace. Amen!”
    “You forgot the babies,” said Mary reproachfully.
    “They’re not of age yet—I don’t think they ought to be mentioned in important matters.”
    “Bye-bye!” shouted the twins from the boat. “Ba-ba, bye-bye!”
    “They’re speaking for themselves,” said Mary, smiling. “Let’s take them out and give them all drinks.”
    The finding of the fresh-water stream at once settled where they should live. Of course, they must live somewhere along its banks. Jean went scouting while Mary looked after the babies, and presently Jean returned to report that she had found the very spot. Following her directions, Mary went upstream a short distance until she came to a little open glade. At the back the stream came down in a pleasant waterfall. Many years of falling water had gradually hollowed out this semi-circular valley, which was about the size of a large house and almost surrounded (except on the side toward the sea) by rock walls. It was so green and sheltered, so snug and homelike, that Mary loved it at once. Above the waterfall waved the frondedwilderness of a tropical jungle. But here they were neither in jungle nor on beach, but in a little corner all their own.
    Tired as they were, after their long journey pulling the boat, Mary knew that there was much work to be done before dark. She ran back to where Jean waited with the babies. With the help of the tide which was now in, they securely beached the boat beyond the reach of the waves. Then Mary carried Ann Elizabeth and Jean took Jonah, and each led a tottery twin by the hand to the site of their new home.
    “Now, I hate to do this,” said Mary, “and as soon as we get settled we won’t have to, but today we’ll have to stake the babies out like goats.”
    “Not Jonah, surely,” protested Jean.

    “No, I guess Jonah will stay put, if we make him a nicelittle bed. But the others would be tumbling into the stream or falling off cliffs or what not, and you and I have work to do.”
    So, with the rope which they had found in the lifeboat, the three walking and creeping babies were tied up to palm trees. Ann Elizabeth promptly crept around and around her tree until she was completely wound up, and then she sat down amiably to play with her fingers. The twins pranced and bellowed at the ends of their ropes, but Mary, knowing them safe, paid no attention to them and fell to work.
    “We’ll have a tepee, Jean,” she said. “It’s the easiest thing we can build, and I know how. Do you remember the one Cousin Alex made us in the back yard two years ago?”
    The first things needed were some long poles. Taking the two hatchets, which had also been part of the lifeboat equipment, they started out to get the poles. Jean, whose knack for discovery always stood them in good stead, found a bamboo grove a little farther upstream, and the long poles, which were both light and strong, seemed just the thing to make the framework of the tepee. They had soon cut enough for their use, and, stripping them of leaves, they stuck them in the soft ground in the form of a large circle. Then they tied the tops together with a piece of rope. The canvas sail, eked out with a few palm leaves, made a verygood cover for the tepee. Inside they made beds of boughs and leaves, spreading the tarpaulin over all to keep out the dampness from the ground. With the blankets arranged on top in comfortable beds, it looked as if they should have a very agreeable night. They laid a circle of stones beside the stream, and that evening had their first campfire. It was pleasant to have warm food again, even if it was only heated in cans and cups, but more pleasant still, it was, to have a friendly flame to hold back the dark