Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FIFTY NINE.

  When Tommy was questioned on the following morning as to his inducementto get into the boat, to their great surprise he replied, that he wantedto go round to the tents again, to see if the bananas were ripe; that heintended to eat some of them and be back before dinner-time, that hemight not be found out.

  "I suspect, Tommy, you would have been very hungry before you ate anybananas if we had not perceived you," said Ready.

  "I won't go into the boat any more," said Tommy.

  "I rather think you will keep to that resolution, Tommy," replied MrSeagrave; "however, I must leave your mother to point out to you thedanger you were in yourself, and in which you placed others by yourfolly."

  The stockade was now almost finished; the door was the occasion of agood deal of consultation; at last, it was agreed that it would bebetter to have a door of stout oak plank, but with second door-postsinside, about a foot apart from the door, between which could beinserted short poles one above the other, so as to barricade it withinwhen required. This would make the door as strong as any other portionof the stockade. As soon as this was all complete, the storehouse wasto be altered for a dwelling-house, by taking away the wattles ofcocoa-nut boughs on the sides, and filling them up with logs ofcocoa-nut trees.

  Before the week was ended the stockade and door were complete, and theynow began to fell trees, to form the sides of the house. This was rapidwork; and while Mr Seagrave, William, and Juno felled the trees, andbrought them on the wheels to the side of the stockade, all ready cut totheir proper lengths, Ready was employed in flooring the house with apart of the deal planks which they had brought round from the cove. Butthis week they were obliged to break off for two days, to collect alltheir crops from the garden.

  A fortnight more passed away in continual hard work, but the house wasat last finished, and very complete, compared to the one they wereresiding in. It was much larger, and divided into three rooms by thedeal planking: the middle room which the door opened into was thesitting and eating room, with a window behind; the two side rooms weresleeping-rooms, one for Mrs Seagrave and the children, and the otherfor the male portion of the family.

  "See, William," said Ready, when they were alone, "what we have beenable to do by means of those deal planks; why, to have floored thishouse, and run up the partitions, would have taken us half a year if wehad had to saw the wood."

  "Yes; and what a comfort it is to have so many shelves about. Whenshall we shift into this house?"

  "The sooner the better. We have plenty of work still to do, but we canwork outside of the stockade."

  "And what do you propose to do with the old house?" said William.

  "We had better put some of our stores of least value in it for thepresent, until we can fit up another storehouse inside the stockade."

  "Then we'll put those casks in, for they take up a great deal of room."

  "All but that large one, William; we shall want that. I shall fix it upin a corner."

  "What for, Ready?"

  "To put water in."

  "But we are closer to the spring than we were at the other house."

  "I know that; but, perhaps, we may not be able to go out of thestockade, and then we shall want water."

  "I understand, Ready; how thoughtful you are!"

  "If at my age I did not think a little, William, it would be very odd.You don't know how anxious I am to see them all inside of this defence."

  "But why should we not come in, Ready?"

  "Why, sir, as there is still plenty of work, I do not like to press thematter, lest your mamma should be fidgeted, and think there was danger;but danger there is; I have a kind of forewarning of it. I wish youwould propose that they should come in at once; the standing-bed placesare all ready, except the canvas, and I shall nail on new by to-night."

  In consequence of this conversation, William proposed at dinnertime thatthe next day they should go into the new house, as it was so much morehandy to work there and live there at the same time. Mr Seagrave wasof the same opinion, but Mrs Seagrave thought it better that everythingshould be tidy first.

  "Why, ma'am," said Ready, "the only way to get things tidy is to goyourself and make them so. Nothing will ever be in its place unless youare there to put it in."

  "Well, Ready," said Mrs Seagrave, "since you are against me as well asall the rest, I give it up, and if you please we will shift overto-morrow."

  "Indeed, ma'am, I think it will be better; this is the last month offine weather, and we shall have plenty to do."

  "Be it so, Ready; you are the best judge; to-morrow we will take up ourquarters in the stockade."

  "Thank God!" muttered Ready very softly.

  The next day was fully employed in changing their residence, andshifting over the bedding and utensils; and that night they slept withinthe stockade. Ready had run up a very neat little outhouse of plank, asa kitchen for Juno, and another week was fully employed as follows: thestores were divided; those of least consequence, and the saltprovisions, flour, and the garden produce, etcetera, were put into theold house; the casks of powder and most of the cartridges were also putthere for security; but a cask of beef, of pork, and flour, all theiron-work and nails, canvas, etcetera, were stowed away for the presentunder the new house, which had, when built as a storehouse, been raisedfour feet from the ground to make a shelter for the stock. This wasvery spacious, and, of course, quite dry, and contained all they wishedto put in. Ready also took care, by degrees, to fill the largewater-butt full of water, and had fixed into the bottom a spigot fordrawing the water off.

  "Well, Mr Seagrave," said Ready on the Saturday, "we have done a goodmany hard weeks' work lately, but this is the last of them. We are nowcomfortably settled in our new house: our stores are all under cover,and safe from the weather, and so we may now take things a littleeasier. William and I must repair the boat, so that we may take a tripround to examine how the stock and yams get on."

  "And the bananas and the guavas," said Tommy.

  "Why, we have quite forgotten all about them," observed Mrs Seagrave.

  "Yes, ma'am; we have been so busy, that it is no wonder; however, theremay be some left yet, and I will go round as soon as the boat is able toswim, and bring all I can find."

  "We must put our seeds and potatoes in before the rainy season, Ready."

  "It will be better, sir, if we can find time, as we shall not have muchmore fine weather now; at all events, we can get them in at intervalswhen the weather is fine. Now I shall go my rounds for turtle.Good-night, ma'am,--good-night, sir. Come, William."

  William and Ready succeeded in turning six more turtles to add to theirstock, and having taken a careful survey with the telescope, they cameback, fastened the door of the stockade, and went to bed.