Part 17 (2/2)

”Do you think we can rear it?” said Mary.

”It will starve if we leave it,” replied Tommy. ”I shall love to try.”

The others agreed that there was no harm in trying, so Tommy carried it carefully back with her, now and then stroking the ruffled feathers.

When they got to their camp she laid the bird on a bed of gra.s.s, peeled one of the breadfruits, and held a few crumbs of the pulp in the palm of her hand just below the parrot's beak. But it was too young, or perhaps too frightened, even to feed itself, and it would have fared ill had not its captor been a country girl and known how to deal with such an emergency. She had seen young birds fed by hand, and she at once cut a thin stick and sharpened its end, upon which she stuck a little bit of breadfruit. Then holding the bird in her left hand, she waited until it opened its beak to cry, and quickly slipped the food in. The little bird swallowed it greedily, much to Tommy's delight, and she went on feeding it until Elizabeth suggested that she would kill it with excess.

”The poor thing was hungry,” said Tommy. ”It's not nearly so much alarmed now. I shall keep it for a pet.”

”You'll have to clip its wings, then,” said Mary, ”or it is sure to fly away as soon as it is strong enough.”

”You do it, Mary. Be very gentle, won't you?”

”There's no need yet, perhaps,” suggested Elizabeth. ”Do it in a day or two when it has got over its fright. It would be just as well to put it in the boat while we are busy. You must take care not to overfeed it, Tommy.”

After dinner they went first to the flag-staff. Not a shred of their scarves was left. As they had no material for making another flag, except their handkerchiefs, which they did not care to part with, and their wraps, which they could not spare, they had to give up for the moment any idea of erecting a signal. Then they hastened in the opposite direction, southward, to fetch bananas and oranges for the other meals of the day. A grave disappointment awaited them. There was plenty of fruit on the ground, but the trees themselves, standing in the direct path of the storm, had all been uprooted or broken off, so that when they had used their present supply they could obtain no more at this spot. It would be necessary to go once more in search of food, for they found the breadfruit too insipid to form their only vegetable diet. They knew the district between their camp and the ruined plantation; nothing edible was to be had there. The only other place where they knew that fruit existed was to the east, beyond the ridge; and even now they could not make up their minds to revisit the scene of their scare.

Next day, however, when Tommy had fed her bird and Mary had clipped its wings, and they had spent an hour or so tidying up the site of the hut preparatory to rebuilding, they set off again in a southerly direction, having resolved to extend their exploration within easy distance of the sh.o.r.e. Crossing the broad path of uprooted trees, flattened gra.s.s, and torn undergrowth, they found as they proceeded that the ridge hemmed them in, closer and closer to the sea. This was partly due to the curving of the sh.o.r.e, and partly to the diagonal lie of the rising ground. Little foothills of the ridge extended downwards towards the coast, forming ridges in miniature, cut here and there by streamlets.

On such expeditions Tommy almost always led the way, for her restless and active temperament was impatient of the sedater going of her sisters. But she never went far ahead, and every few minutes, as if alarmed at her own daring, she would run back and keep with the others for a time. She was thus a few yards in advance when, as she mounted a hillock, she came in sight of a number of trees cl.u.s.tering almost at the edge of the sea, and uttered an exclamation of surprise and pleasure.

”Oh, do look here!” she cried. ”I believe we have come to some cocoanut palms. You remember we saw some at Valparaiso.”

The others ran to join her, and Mary at once declared that she was right. There was no mistaking the tall, smooth stems with their feathery crowns. They all rushed forward eagerly. Thanks to the storm, there were several huge nuts strewing the ground around each of the trees. Tommy, who was first on the scene, picked up one of them and turned it over in her hands in a puzzled way.

”Is it a cocoanut after all?” she said. ”It's not a bit like those I have seen in shops.”

”It's a cocoanut right enough,” replied Mary. ”But you've got to strip off the outer husk before you come to the nut itself.”

Tommy whipped out her knife and began to cut away the coa.r.s.e, fibrous covering. It was very tough, and she soon declared that it would never come off unless the others helped her. So they all knelt on the ground with the nut in the middle, and employed their knives energetically, until at last the husk was removed. The sh.e.l.l inside was ivory-white, very different from the old brown nuts they had been used to see in England. Being quite brittle, a small piece was easily cut off the top, and they saw the inside full of a pale, milky liquid.

”You first, Tommy,” said Elizabeth. ”You saw the trees first.”

Tommy took a sip of the liquid.

”Delicious!” she said. ”I don't think I ever tasted anything so nice.”

She drank more, and, handing the nut to Mary, continued--

”It's sweet, Bess, and sour too, something like lemonade, only not like it. It's like--oh, I don't know what it's like; just itself, I suppose. Don't drink it all, Mary.”

Elizabeth, when her turn came, p.r.o.nounced it a very refres.h.i.+ng drink, and they were all delighted at so welcome an addition to their larder.

They collected as many nuts as they could carry, and, returning to their camp, stored them in the boat. In the course of the next few days they went several times to the same place, until they had brought back all the nuts that lay on the ground. It was fortunate that so many had been thrown down, for they did not see how they could have obtained them otherwise. Even Tommy, the climber of the family, confessed that she would have been beaten by the smooth, straight stem of the cocoanut palm. Mary had a dim recollection of reading that the natives had a way of climbing the trees by means of a rope, but she could not remember the details of the method, and in any case, Tommy could hardly have used it successfully without a good deal of practice.

Once more relieved from anxiety about food, the girls devoted themselves industriously to the reconstruction of their hut. Their former practice made their task easier. In a few days the new house was finished, and they were especially glad of its shelter at night, instead of the cramping narrowness of the boat.

Days had lengthened into weeks. The notches on their calendar trunk told them how time was flying--a sad reminder in many ways. With so little to do they felt the hours hang heavily on their hands, though Tommy's parrot gave them a little amus.e.m.e.nt and interest. The bird had become quite used to its mistress, and had learnt to take its food from her hand. Its voice, not of very charming quality, as all confessed, grew stronger, and it became accustomed to give a quaint little scream whenever Tommy approached. She would set it on her finger and talk to it, using the same word over and over again, in the hope that it would by and by pick up a phrase or two. But although it became perfectly tame, it could never be induced to subst.i.tute civilized words for its natural scream and squawk.

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