Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

  The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Mr Seagrave observed:"Now that we have so many things to do, I think, Ready, we ought to laydown a plan of operations; method is everything when work is to be done:now tell me what you propose shall be our several occupations for thenext week, for to-morrow is Sunday; and although we have not yet beenable to honour the day as we should, I think that now we must and oughtto keep it holy."

  "Yes, sir," replied Ready. "To-morrow we will rest from our labour, andask God's blessing upon our endeavours during the six days of the week;and now, as to your proposition, Mr Seagrave, shall we begin first withthe lady?"

  "You must not consider that you have ladies with you now, Ready," saidMrs Seagrave, "at least, not fine ladies. My health and strength arerecovering fast, and I mean to be very useful. I propose to assist Junoin all the domestic duties, such as the cookery and washing, to lookafter and teach the children, mend all the clothes, and make all that isrequired, to the best of my ability. If I can do more I will."

  "I think we may be satisfied with that, Mr Seagrave," replied Ready."Now, sir, the two most pressing points, with the exception of buildingthe house, are to dig up a piece of ground, and plant our potatoes andseeds; and to make a turtle-pond, so as to catch the turtle and put themin before the season is over."

  "You are right," replied Mr Seagrave; "but which ought to be donefirst?"

  "I should say the turtle-pond, as it will be only a few days' work foryou, Juno, and William. I shall not want your assistance for this nextweek. I shall fix upon some spot, not far from here, where the treesare thickest in the grove, and cut them down so as to clear out a spacein which we will, by and by, build our storerooms; and, as soon as therainy season has gone by, we can remove all our stores from the otherside of the island. It will occupy me the whole of the week, cuttingdown the trees and sawing them into proper lengths, ready for buildingthe house, and then we must all join our strength and get it up withoutdelay."

  "Can you really manage to get it up in time? How soon do you expect therains will come on?"

  "In three or four weeks. After next week, I shall probably have theassistance of two of you, if not of all. Now I think of it, I mustreturn to the cove."

  "What for?"

  "Don't you recollect, sir, your two-wheeled carriage, packed up inmatting, which was thrown on shore in the gale? You laughed when yousaw it, and said it would be of little use now; but the wheels and axlewill be very useful, as we can make a wide path to the place when I cutdown the trees, and wheel out the logs much more easily than we can dragor carry them."

  "That is an excellent idea. It will save a great deal of labour."

  "I expect that it will, sir. William and I will go away early on Mondaymorning, and be back before breakfast. To-day we will fix upon thespots where our garden is to be, our turtle-pond to be made, and thetrees to be cut down. That shall be our business, Mr Seagrave; andWilliam and Juno may put things a little more to rights here."

  Mr Seagrave and Ready then walked down to the beach, and, aftersurveying the reefs for some time, Ready said, "You see, Mr Seagrave,we do not want too much water for a turtle-pond, as, if it is too deep,there is a difficulty in catching them when we want them: what we wantis a space of water surrounded by a low wall of stones, so that theanimals cannot escape, for they cannot climb up, although they can walkon the shelving sand with their flippers. Now the reef here is high outof the water, and the space within the reef and the beach is deepenough, and the rocks on the beach nearly fill up that side and preventthem crawling away by the shore. We have, therefore, little more to dothan to fill up the two other sides, and then our pond will becomplete."

  "I see it will not be a long job either, if we can find loose rocksenough," replied Mr Seagrave.

  "Almost all those which are on the beach are loose," replied Ready, "andthere are plenty close to us: some of them will be too heavy to carry,but they can be brought here by the aid of handspikes and crowbars.Suppose we make a signal for William and Juno, and set them to work."

  Mr Seagrave called and waved his hat, and Juno and William came down tothem. Juno was ordered to go back for two handspikes, while Readyexplained to William what was to be done. Having stayed with them andassisted them for some time after Juno had returned with the implements,Mr Seagrave and Ready proceeded to the point, to fix upon a spot for agarden, leaving William and Juno to continue their labour.