The others laughed. It sounded so funny. But they were all angry about their beach being spoilt.
“I’ll clear up the mess and burn it,” said Mike.
“Wait a minute!” said Jack. “We might find some of the things useful.”
“What! Old banana skins and orange-peel!” cried Mike. “You’re not thinking of making a pudding or something of them, Jack!”
“No,” said Jack, with a grin, “but if we keep the tin and a carton and the empty cigarette packet in our cave-cupboard, we might put them out on the beach if anyone else ever comes - and then, if they happen to find the remains of our fire, or a bit of string or anything like that - why, they won’t think of looking for us - they’ll just think trippers have been here!”
“Good idea, Jack!” cried everyone.
“You really are good at thinking out clever things,” said Peggy, busy getting the fire going. Its crackling sounded very cheerful, for they were all hungry. Peggy put some milk on to boil. She meant to make cocoa for them all to drink.
Mike picked up the cigarette packet, the tin, and one of the cardboard cartons. He washed the carton and the tin in the lake, and then went to put the three things away in their little cave-cupboard. They might certainly come in useful some day!
Nora brought in five eggs for breakfast. Peggy fried them with two trout that Jack had caught on his useful lines. The smell was delicious!
“I say! Poor old Daisy must be milked!” said Jack, gobbling down his breakfast and drinking his hot cocoa.
Suddenly Nora gave a squeal and pointed behind him. Jack turned - and to his great astonishment he saw the cow walking towards him!
“You wouldn’t go to milk her in time so she has come to you!” laughed Peggy. “Good old Daisy! Fancy her knowing the way!”
“I’ll milk Daisy each morning and Mike can milk her in the evenings,” said Jack, as they sat eating their breakfast that morning. “Nora, you can look after the hens. It won’t only be your job to feed them and give them water and collect the eggs, but you’ll have to watch the fence round the hen-yard carefully to see that the hens don’t peck out the heather we’ve stuffed into the fence to stop up the holes. We don’t want to lose our hens!”
“What is Peggy going to do?” asked Nora.
“Peggy had better do the odd jobs,” said Jack. “She can look after the fire, think of meals and tidy up. I’ll see to my fishing-lines. And every now and again one or other of us had better go to the top of the hill to see if any more trippers are coming. Our plans worked quite well last time - but we were lucky enough to spot the boat coming. If we hadn’t seen it when we did, we would have been properly caught!”
“I’d better go and get the boat out from where I hid it under the overhanging bushes, hadn’t I?” said Mike, finishing his cocoa.
“No,” said Jack. “It would be a good thing to keep it always hidden there except when we need it. Now I’m off to milk Daisy!”
He went off, and the children heard the welcome sound of the creamy milk splashing into a saucepan, for they still had no milking-pail. Mike and Jack were determined to get one that night! It was so awkward to keep milking a cow into saucepans and kettles!
Peggy began to clear away and wash up the dishes. Nora wanted to help her, but Peggy said she had better go and feed the hens. So off she went, making the little clucking noise that the hens knew. They came rushing to her as she climbed over the fence of their little yard.
Nora scattered the seed for them, and they gobbled it up, scratching hard with their strong clawed feet to find any they had missed. Nora gave them some water, too. Then she took a look round the fence to see that it was all right.
It seemed all right. The little girl didn’t bother to look very hard, because she wanted to go off to the raspberry patch up on the hillside and see if there were any more wild raspberries ripe. If she had looked carefully, as she should have done, she would have noticed quite a big hole in the fence, where one of the hens had been pecking out the bracken and heather. But she didn’t notice. She picked up a basket Peggy had made of thin twigs, and set off.
“Are you going to find raspberries, Nora?” called Peggy.
“Yes!” shouted Nora.
“Well, bring back as many as you can, and we’ll have them for pudding at dinner-time with cream!” shouted Peggy. “Don’t eat them all yourself!”
“Come with me and help me!” cried Nora, not too pleased at the thought of having to pick raspberries for everyone.
“I’ve got to get some water from the spring,” called back Peggy; “and I want to do some mending.”
So Nora went alone. She found a patch of raspberries she hadn’t seen yesterday, and there were a great many ripe. The little girl ate dozens and then began to fill her basket with the sweet juicy fruit. She heard Jack taking Daisy the cow back to her grassy field on the other side of the island. She heard Mike whistling as he cut some willow stakes down in the thicket, ready for use if they were wanted. Everyone was busy and happy.
Nora sat down in the sun and leaned against a warm rock that jutted out from the hillside. She felt very happy indeed. The lake was as blue as a forget-me-not down below her. Nora lazed there in the sun until she heard Mike calling:
“Nora! Nora! Wherever are you! You’ve been hours!”
“Coming!” cried Nora, and she made her way through the raspberry canes, round the side of the hill through the heather and bracken, and down to the beach, where all the others were. Peggy had got the fire going well, and was cooking a rabbit that Jack had produced.
“Where are the raspberries?” asked Jack. “Oh, you’ve got a basketful! Good! Go and skim the cream off the milk in that bowl over there, Nora. Put it into a jug and bring it back. There will be plenty for all of us.”
Soon they were eating their dinner. Peggy was certainly a good little cook. But nicest of all were the sweet juicy raspberries with thick yellow cream poured all over them. How the children did enjoy them!
“The hens are very quiet to-day,” said Jack, finishing up the last of his cream. “I haven’t heard a single cluck since we’ve been having dinner!”
“I suppose they’re all right?” said Peggy.
“I’ll go and have a look,” said Mike. He put down his plate and went to the hen-yard. He looked here - and he looked there - he lifted up the sack that was stretched over one corner of the yard for shelter - but no hens were there!
“Are they all right?” called Jack.
Mike turned in dismay. “No!” he said. “They’re not here! They’ve gone!”
“Gone!” cried Jack, springing up in astonishment. “They can’t have gone! They must be there!”
“Well, they’re not,” said Mike. “They’ve completely vanished! Not even a cluck left!”
All the children ran to the hen-yard and gazed in amazement and fright at the empty space.
“Do you suppose someone has been here and taken them?” said Peggy.
“No,” said Jack sternly, “look here! This explains their disappearance!”
He pointed to a hole in the fence of the hen-yard. “See that hole! They’ve all escaped through there - and now goodness knows where they are!”
“Well, I never heard them go,” said Peggy. “I was the only one left here. They must have gone when I went to get water from the spring!”
“Then the hole must have been there when Nora fed the hens this morning,” said Jack. “Nora, what do you mean by doing your job as badly as that? Didn’t I tell you this morning that you were to look carefully round the fence each time the hens were fed to make sure it was safe? And now, the very first time, you let the hens escape! I’m ashamed of you!”
“Our precious hens!” said Peggy, in dismay.
“You might do your bit, Nora,” said Mike. “It’s too bad of you.”
Nora began to cry, but the others had no sympathy for her. It was too big a disappointment to lose their hens. They began to hunt round to see if by chance the hens were hidden anywhere near.
Nora cried more and more loudly, till Jack got really angry with her. “Stop that silly baby noise!” he said. “Can’t you help to look for the hens, too?”
“You’re not to talk to me like that!” wept Nora.
“I shall talk to you how I like,” said Jack. “I’m the captain here, and you’ve got to do as you’re told. If one of us is careless we all suffer, and I won’t have that! Stop crying, I tell you, and help to look for the hens.”
Nora started to hunt, but she didn’t stop crying. She felt so unhappy and ashamed and sad, and it was really dreadful to have all the others angry with her, and not speaking a word to her. Nora could hardly see to hunt for the hens.
“Well, they are nowhere about here!” said Jack, at last. “We’d better spread out and see if we can find them on the island somewhere. They may have wandered right to the other side. We’ll all separate and hunt in different places. Peggy, you go that way, and I’ll go over to Daisy’s part.”
The children separated and went different ways, calling to the hens loudly. Nora went where Jack had pointed. She called to the hens, too, but none came in answer. Wherever could they be?
What a hunt there was that afternoon for those vanished hens! It was really astonishing that not one could be found. Jack couldn’t understand it! They were nowhere on the hill. They were not even in the little cave where Jack had hidden them the day before, because he looked. They were not among the raspberry canes. They were not in Daisy’s field. They were not under the hedges. They were not anywhere at all, it seemed!
Nora grew more and more unhappy as the day passed. She felt that she really couldn’t face the others if the hens were not found. She made a hidey-hole in the tall bracken and crouched there, watching the others returning to the camp for supper. They had had no tea and were hungry and thirsty. So was Nora - but nothing would make her go and join the others!
No - she would rather stay where she was, all alone, than sit down with Mike, Jack, and Peggy while they were still so cross and upset.
“Well, the hens are gone!” said Mike, as he joined Jack going down the hill to the beach.
“It’s strange,” said Jack. “They can’t have flown off the island, surely!”
“It’s dreadful, I think,” said Peggy; “we did find their eggs so useful to eat.”
Nora sat alone in the bracken. She meant to sleep there for the night. She thought she would never, never be happy again.
The others sat down by the fire, whilst Peggy made some cocoa, and doled out a rice pudding she had made. They wondered where Nora was.
“She’ll be along soon, I expect,” said Peggy.
They ate their meal in silence - and then - then - oh, what a lovely sound came to their ears! Yes, it was “cluck, cluck, cluck!” And walking sedately down to the beach came all six hens! The children stared and stared and stared!
“Where have you been, you scamps?” cried Jack. “We’ve looked for you everywhere!”
“Cluckluck, cluckluck!” said the hens.
“You knew it was your meal-time, so you’ve come for it!” said Jack. “I say, you others! I wonder if we could let the hens go loose each day - oh no - we couldn’t - they’d lay their eggs away and we’d never be able to find them!”
“I’ll feed them,” said Peggy. She threw them some corn and they pecked it up eagerly. Then they let Mike and Jack lift them into their mended yard and they settled down happily, roosting on the perch made for them at one end.
“We’d better tell Nora,” said Jack. So they went up the hillside calling Nora. “Nora! Nora! Where are you?”
But Nora didn’t answer! She crouched lower in the bracken and hoped no one would find her. But Jack came upon her suddenly and shouted cheerfully, “Oh, there you are! The hens have all come back, Nora! They knew it was their meal-time, you see! Come and have your supper. We kept some for you.”
Nora went with him to the beach. Peggy kissed her and said, “Now don’t worry any more. It’s all right. We’ve got all the hens safely again.”
“Had I better see to the hens each day, do you think, instead of Nora?” Mike asked Jack. But Jack shook his head.
“No,” he said. “That’s Nora’s job - and you’ll see, she’ll do it spendidly now, won’t you, Nora?”
“Yes, I will, Jack,” said Nora, eating her rice pudding, and feeling much happier. “I do promise I will! I’m so sorry I was careless.”
“That’s all right,” said the other three together - and it was all right, for they were all kind-hearted and fond of one another.
“But what I’d like to know,” said Peggy, as she and Nora washed the dirty things, “is where did those hens manage to hide themselves so cleverly?”
The children soon knew - for when, in a little while, Mike went to fetch something from Willow House he saw three shining eggs in the heather there! He picked them up and ran back to the others.
“Those cunning hens walked into Willow House and hid there!” he cried, holding up the eggs.
“Well, well, well!” said Jack, in surprise. “And to think how we hunted all over the island - and those rascally hens were near by all the time!”
Now it was easy to milk Daisy, for they had a proper pail. Peggy cleaned it well before they used it, for it was dusty and dirty. When Jack or Mike had milked Daisy they stood the pail of milk in the middle of the little spring that gushed out from the hillside and ran down to the lake below. The icy-cold water kept the milk cool, and it did not turn sour, even on the hottest day.
Jack got out the packets of seeds he had brought from his grandfather’s farm, and showed them to the others. “Look,” he said, “here are lettuce seeds, and radish seeds, and mustard and cress, and runner beans! It’s late to plant the beans, but in the good soil on this island I daresay they will grow quickly and we shall be able to have a crop later in the year.”
“The mustard and cress and radish will grow very quickly!” said Peggy. “What fun! The lettuces won’t be very long, either, this hot weather, if we keep them well watered.”
“Where shall we plant them?” asked Mike.
“Well, we’d better plant them in little patches in different corners of the island,” said Jack. “If we dig out a big patch and have a sort of vegetable garden, and anyone comes here to look for us, they will see our garden and know someone is here! But if we just plant out tiny patches, we can easily throw heather over them if we see anyone coming.”
“Jack’s always full of good ideas,” said Nora. “I’ll help to dig and plant, Jack.”
“We’ll all do it,” said Jack. So together they hunted for good places, and dug up the ground there, and planted their precious seeds. It was Peggy’s job to water them each day and see that no weeds choked the seeds when they grew.
“We’re getting on!” said Nora happily. “Milk and cream each day, eggs each day, wild raspberries when we want them, and lettuces, mustard and cress, and radishes soon ready to be pulled!”
Jack planted the beans in little bare places at the foot of a brambly hedge. He said they would be able to grow up the brambles, and probably wouldn’t be noticed if anyone came. The bean seedlings were carefully watched and nursed until they were strong and tall, and had begun to twist themselves round any stem near. Then Peggy left them to themselves, only watering them when they needed it.