The Secret Island by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online Page A

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.
    “You can’t, Jack!” cried Nora. “You’d never get a cow here!”
    “I’ll come with you, Jack,” said Mike. “You’ll want someone to help you.”
    “Right !” said Jack. “We’ll start off as soon as it’s