"Well, then, I will get a bit of candle to-morrow night, and fit up two
fishing-lines. But I must go with you, William. We don't use much
candle, at all events."
"No, we are too glad to go to bed: but there are two or three boxes of
one sort or another up in the cove."
The next morning before breakfast all hands were employed in getting
the turtle into the pond. After breakfast, William and Juno finished
the pond where the walls had not been raised high enough; and, when
they returned to dinner, reported that their task was completed. Mr.
Seagrave also said that he had, he thought, cleared quite ground enough
for the present; and as Mrs. Seagrave wanted Juno to help her to wash
the linen that afternoon, it was agreed that William, Ready, and Mr.
Seagrave should all go down to the garden, and put in the potatoes.
Ready worked with the spade, while Mr. Seagrave and William cut the
potatoes in pieces, so as to have an eye in each piece. When they had
finished this work, Mr. Seagrave said - "Now that we have finished
cutting the potatoes, let us go and assist Ready in planting them and
the seeds which we have brought down with us."
Chapter XXVIII
That night Ready sat up for two or three hours working by candle-light
(William keeping him company), very busily engaged fitting up the
fishing-lines with leads and hooks. At last two were complete.
"What bait must we use, Ready?"
"I should think that the best would be one of the fish out of the
shells which are in the sand; but a piece of pork fat will, I dare say,
do as well."
"And whereabouts would you fish, Ready?"
"The best place, I should think, would be at the farthermost end of the
point, where I got the boat through the reef - the water is deep there
close to the rocks."
"I was thinking, Ready, if those gannets and men-of-war birds would be
good eating."
"Not very, William; they are very tough and very fishy: we must try for
those when we can get nothing better. Now that we have got in the seeds
and potatoes, we must all set to to-morrow morning to fell and carry
the timber. I think Mr. Seagrave had better use the axe with me; and
you and Juno can, when I have shown you how, hang the timber to the
axle, and wheel it out to the place where we have decided upon building
the house. And now we had better go to bed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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