Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

  Mr Seagrave and Ready then continued their way along the beach, untilthey arrived at the point which the latter had considered as aconvenient place to make the garden. They found a sufficiency of mould;and as the point was narrow at its joining on to the mainland, no greatlength of enclosure would be required.

  "You see, sir," said Ready, "we can wait till after the rainy season isover before we put up the fence, and we can prepare it in the meantime,when the weather will permit us to work. The seeds and potatoes willnot come up until after the rains are finished; so all we have to do isto dig up the ground, and put them in as fast as we can. We cannot makea large garden this year; but our potatoes we must contrive to get in,if we cannot manage anything else."

  "If we have no fence to make," replied Mr Seagrave, "I think we shallbe able to clear away quite enough ground in a week to put in all thatwe require."

  "The first job will be to pull up the small brushwood," said Ready, "andturn up the ground; the larger plants we must leave, if we have nottime. Tommy might be of some use here in taking away the shrubs as youpull them up; but we had better now go on to the grove, and choose thespot for cutting down the trees. I have made my mark."

  Ready and Mr Seagrave proceeded in the direction which the former hadpointed out, until they arrived at a spot on a rising ground, where thetrees were so thick that it was not very easy to pass through them.

  "There is the place," said Ready. "I propose to cut all the timber wewant for the houses out of this part of the grove, and to leave an opensquare place, in the centre of which we will build our storerooms. Yousee, sir, if necessary, with a very little trouble we might turn it intoa place of protection and defence, as a few palisades here and therebetween the trees would make it, what they call in the East Indies, astockade."

  "Very true, but I trust we shall not require it for such a purpose."

  "I hope so too, but there is nothing like being prepared; however, wehave plenty to do before we can think of that. Now, sir, as dinner isready, suppose we return, and after dinner we will both commence ourtasks."

  Juno and William returned to the dinner which Mrs Seagrave hadprepared. They were both very warm with their work, which was veryhard, but very eager to finish their task. After dinner was over, MrsSeagrave requested her husband, as he was about to go down to the point,with the spade and a small hatchet in his hand, to take Tommy with him,as she had a great deal to do, and could not watch him as well as thebaby and Caroline. So Mr Seagrave took Tommy by the hand, and led himto the point, and made him sit down close to him while he cleared awaythe brushwood.

  Mr Seagrave worked very hard, and when he had cut down and cleared aportion of the ground, he made Tommy carry away to a little distance,and pile in a heap, the bushes which he had cleared away. When MrSeagrave had cleared away a large piece of ground with his hatchet, hethen took his spade to dig at the roots and turn up the mould, leavingTommy to amuse himself. What Tommy did for about an hour, during whichMr Seagrave worked very diligently, his father did not observe; but allof a sudden he began to cry; and when his father asked him the reason,he did not answer, but only cried the more, until at last he put hishands to his stomach, and roared most lustily. As he appeared to be invery great pain, his father left off work, and led him up to the tent,when Mrs Seagrave came out, alarmed at his cries. Ready, who had heardTommy screaming for so long a while, thought that there might besomething serious, and left his work to ascertain the cause. When heheard what had passed, he said:

  "Depend upon it, the child has eaten something which has made him ill.Tell me, Tommy, what did you eat when you were down there?"

  "Berries," roared Tommy.

  "I thought as much, ma'am," said Ready. "I must go and see what theberries were." And the old man hastened down to the place where MrSeagrave had been at work. In the meantime Mrs Seagrave was muchalarmed lest the child should have poisoned himself, and Mr Seagravewent to search among the medicines for some castor-oil.

  Ready returned just as he came back to the tent with the bottle ofcastor-oil, and he told Ready that he was about to give Tommy a dose.

  "Well, sir," replied Ready, who had a plant in his hand, "I don't thinkyou should give him any, for it appears to me that he has taken too muchalready. This is, if I recollect right, the castor-oil plant, and hereare some of the castor-oil beans which Master Tommy has been eating.Tell me, Tommy, did you eat them?"

  "Yes," cried Tommy.

  "I thought so: give him a little warm drink, ma'am, and he'll soon bebetter: it will teach him not to eat berries or beans again."

  What Ready said was true; nevertheless Master Tommy was very ill for thewhole of the day, and was put early to bed.