"Of course," rejoined Max, "we shall want a supply of building materials, tools, etcetera, and I am expecting them along daily. We have now been here several weeks, and it is quite time, in the natural and regular course of things, and according to the uniform experience of people situated as we are, for a ship heavily laden, (say in our case), with lumber and hardware, to be driven upon our shores in the midst of a terrible storm, (yesterday, when it began to thunder, I thought it was at hand). The ship will come driving upon the reef--the crew will take to the boats, but no boat can live in such a sea, and notwithstanding our humane and daring efforts to assist them, all perish among the breakers--that is to say, all except the carpenter--whom I rescue, by plunging into the raging flood and dragging him ashore by the hair, just as he is about sinking for the third time." "Nobly done!" said Browne, "but couldn't you at the same time manage to save a drowning washerwoman? she would be as great an acquisition as the carpenter, in my mind." "At length," resumed Max, "the storm abates--the sea becomes smooth--we go out in the yawl to the stranded vessel, where she lies upon a coral patch, and bring off, in two boat loads, the carpenter's chest, a keg of gunpowder, a blunderbuss, seven muskets, fourteen pairs of pistols, and a bag of doubloons, (think of that, Johnny!) That very night the wind rises again: the surf breaks the wreck to pieces, and washes the fragments ashore, and in the morning the sea is strewn far and wide with floating spars, and bales, and barrels; and the reef is covered for miles with `joist, plank, pine-boards, shingles, window-sash,' and whatever other trifling conveniences are requisite for building my cottage. This is what Johnny and I confidently calculate upon." "In the meantime," said Arthur, "in case by any unfortunate accident your ship should fail to arrive in time to enable us to get the cottage up before the rains set in, I propose that we commence a less ambitious structure." He began to trace upon the ground with a pointed stick, the oval outline of what he called a `Tihitian fare.' "But even for my fare," he added, "we shall need the means of cutting down a number of good-sized trees." "Of which we are entirely destitute," said Max, with an air of triumph, "and I don't see but that we shall have to wait for my ship after all." "Not so," answered Arthur, "for I think that two or three of the cutlasses may be converted into tolerable saws, with which, by dint of a little patience, we can get out as many posts and rafters as will be requisite for the frame of our building, though I admit it will be tedious work."