Part 11 (1/2)

”Oh, yes there are. Bunker Blue caught a lot one day. But he had worms for bait.”

However Sue did not mind fis.h.i.+ng without any worms on the pin-hook, and she sat down on a log, near the water and let the line dangle in it, while Bunny walked about the island. He had never been on this one before, though there was a larger one, farther down the river, where he and his sister Sue had often gone on little picnics with their mother and father.

Walking back a little way from the edge of the water, Bunny saw a place where a tangle of vines, growing over an old stump, had made a place like a little tent, or bower. All at once Bunny remembered a story his mother had read to him. Back he ran to where Sue was fis.h.i.+ng.

”Oh, Sue! Sue!” he exclaimed. ”I know what we can do!”

”What?”

”We can play Robinson Crusoe!” cried Bunny.

”Is that like tag, or hide-and-go-to-seek?” the little girl wanted to know.

”Neither one,” answered her brother. ”Robinson Crusoe was a man who was s.h.i.+pwrecked on an island, and he lived there a long time with his man Friday. We can play that.”

”But we aren't s.h.i.+pwrecked,” Sue said. Living near the sea the children had often heard of s.h.i.+pwrecks, and had once seen one, when a big sail boat had beep blown up on the beach and broken to pieces by the heavy waves. The sailors were taken off by the life-savers. ”We're not s.h.i.+pwrecked,” said Sue. ”There's our boat all right,” and she pointed to the one in which they had gone adrift.

”Oh, well, we can pretend we've been s.h.i.+pwrecked,” Bunny said.

”Oh, yes!” and Sue understood now. ”What is the rest of the game?” she asked.

”Well, mother read the story to me out of a book,” explained Bunny.

”Robinson Crusoe was wrecked, and he had to live on this island, and he had a man named Friday.”

”What a funny name! Who named him that?” asked Sue.

”Robinson Crusoe did. You see, Friday was a colored man, very nice, too, and he helped Robinson a lot. Robinson called him that name because he found him on Friday.”

”But this isn't Friday,” objected Sue. ”It's Thursday.”

”Well, it's only pretend,” went on Bunny.

”Oh, yes. I forgot. So Robinson had a colored man named Friday to help him.”

”Yes,” Bunny said, ”and we'll play that game. I'll be Robinson.”

”But who is going to be Friday?” Sue wanted to know.

”You can be.”

”But I'm not a man, and I'm not colored, Bunny.”

”We'll have to pretend that, too. You'll be my man Friday, and we'll go to live in the little tent over there,” and Bunny pointed toward the leafy bower he had found. ”And you can be colored, too, if you want, Sue,” he said. ”You could rub some mud on your face and hands.”

”Oh, let's! That's what I'll do!” and Sue laid aside the stick to which Bunny had tied the fishline and the bent pin. ”That will be fun!” Sue said. ”It will be better than the Punch and Judy show with the lobster claw on your nose.”

”But you mustn't get your dress muddy,” Bunny cautioned his sister.