Laura Lee Hope

“ I’m on the rolling ocean! The rolling ocean!” With a laugh, Bunny again made his shoulders move in that funny way, imitating the heaving and swaying of a ship in the swell of the sea.
“You’ll get plenty of that before we reach the West Indies,” said Mr. Brown. “The ocean will roll for you all you want it to.”
“I like the ocean,” announced the little boy. “I’m going to fish in it when we get on the steamer.”
“And maybe you’ll catch a crab and it will pinch you,” said Sue.
“I like crabs,” declared Bunny.
“I don’t,” stated Sue. “I don’t like ’em alive! Once I got pinched by a crab.” ”

“ Sue Brown was very much startled by the strange and fearful sound, and so was her brother Bunny. To the children it was truly a terrible noise. It was, Sue said, “like a big bull bellowing in a field.”
“Do you think it’s a bull, Bunny?” she asked her brother, as she ran along the corridor outside the stateroom.
“No, it isn’t a bull,” he said, as the strange noise sounded again, seeming to shake the whole vessel. “How would they get a bull on a ship?”
“Well, they have cows on ships,” Sue said. “One of the sailors told me he milked a cow once. And if they have cows they can have bulls, I guess.” ”

“ Up to this time the days had been bright and sunny for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. But on the morning after the bump in the night the sun was hidden behind masses of dark clouds. When Bunny saw Captain Ward gazing around the horizon, where sky and water seem to meet, and when the little boy heard the commander tell his officers to see that everything was made “snug and tight,” Bunny went to his father.
“Are we going to have a storm?” he asked.
“Perhaps,” said Mr. Brown. “But that’s nothing. We must have storms once in a while. We can’t have the sun always.” ”

“ Bunny was once more behind the counter, looking at the clam shells, the piles of pebbles, and the sand, at his wrapping paper and twine and at the swaying shingle on a box—his scales.
“Good morning, Mrs. Anderson, what will it be to-day?” again asked the little boy storekeeper as he bowed to his sister.
“Oh, good morning, Mr. Gordon,” replied Sue, and she did not even smile as she gave her brother the pretend name. This showed that Sue was now playing the game in real earnest. “Have you any sugar this morning, Mr. Gordon?” ”

“ The fog was so dense and thick that they could not see the bow or stern of the ship when they stood in the middle, or “amidships,” as a sailor would call it.
As for looking over the side and seeing any other vessels that might be approaching or any land that the Beacon might be nearing, this was out of the question. A white curtain of mist seemed drawn all about the steamer, and Bunny and Sue soon realized that they were going very slowly. The Beacon was under half speed.
“Why do we go so slow?” asked Bunny, just as the foghorn again boomed out its deep note. ”

“ We aren’t going to hurt the wild man. We want to be friends with him. But very likely he’s so wild he won’t trust us. All we want to do is to talk to him and tell him we’ll be friends and help him.”
“Oh, well, I guess that’s all right,” agreed Sam.
“Besides,” went on Will, “we don’t want this fellow with his long hair and beard scaring Bunny and Sue.”
“No, that’s so,” admitted Sam. “He is sort of scary looking,” he added, as he peered from the window and saw the wild man, as they called him, coming up the path that led to the little wooden house amid the cocoanut trees. ”

“ Pott some flowers and cocoanuts,” explained Bunny.
“He fell off his horse and he’s in the hospital,” said Sue. “And he wants to find his son Harry and the treasure.”
“Why, I’m his son Harry!” cried the wild man. “That’s my name! I’m Harry Pott and my father is Philip Pott! I wonder if it can be the same one?”
“It must be,” said Mr. Brown. “There could hardly be two men of the same name wrecked from the Mary Bell. I remember hearing the Mr. Pott who was hurt near our house say that the name of his schooner was Mary Bell.” ”

“ The apple tree was a low one, and to as active a boy as was Bunny Brown it was not at all hard to climb. So up he scrambled, leaving his basket on the ground.
Pretty soon Sue, having picked as many dandelions, buttercups and daisies as her hands would hold, crawled back under the fence. She looked beneath the apple tree for Bunny, but did not see him.
“Bunny! Bunny! Where are you?” she called. “I see your basket but I don’t see you!”
Just then a good, green apple fell at Sue’s feet. By good is meant that the apple was not wormy, though it was not ripe, either. ”

“ Miss Mantin said to Bunny and Sue. “But the flowers can go right up to his bedside. He will like to look at them. And now, whose children are you? Is Mr. Pott your father?”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Sue.
“I’m Bunny Brown and this is my sister Sue,” explained the little boy.
“Oh, yes, now I remember. It was from your house that Mr. Pott was brought here,” said the second nurse, Miss Mantin, who was in charge of the hospital. “Well, I think you can see Mr. Pott for just a few moments. He is very ill and not altogether right in his head. Sometimes he wanders in his talk. ”

“ Sue Brown was very seldom afraid of anything. She and Bunny had gone through so many strange adventures and nothing had happened to them—that is, nothing of any account—that Sue was inclined to believe that nothing ever would happen. ”

“ Once they were dressed, however, Bunny and Sue hurried out on deck. As far as they could see, there was no bit of land against which the Beacon had thrust her prow. But about a mile away was a large island with palm trees waving in the wind and white surf breaking on the white sands.
“I thought we had gone aground,” said Bunny. He was somewhat puzzled, for he saw water all around the ship.
“The ground is underneath us,” a sailor explained. “We ran over, and partly on, a sand-bar about five feet under water. That’s why you can’t see it. Our keel is fast in the sand.” ”

“ Though Sue had her doll, the salt water had spoiled some of the clothes. But Elizabeth’s little mistress did not mind, for she said they were going to the West Indies where it would be so warm that Elizabeth would need few clothes.
The storm raged all the remainder of that day and far into the night. But when morning dawned the wind went down and the rain ceased, though the waves were still high and would be for another day or so. Big storms at sea do not pass as quickly as they do on shore, for the ocean keeps up its restless, heaving motion. ”

“ Brown went on, a sudden thought coming to her. “The cocoanut palm trees and bushes are very thick. Even now some one may be hiding and looking out on us.”
“Whoever has been living in that house,” said Mr. Brown, turning to glance at it, “is a white man, I’m sure. He wouldn’t hide and spy out on us. He would be only too glad to see us, for if he is here by himself he must be very lonesome. ”

“ Brown. “What are we going to do?”
“What are we going to do?” repeated her husband quickly. “Why, we are going back and camp on Cocoanut Island and have a regular picnic until the ship comes back for us! That’s what we’re going to do!” he said.
“Hurray!” cried Bunny Brown. “We’ll camp on Cocoanut Island and have lots of fun!”
“Hurray!” echoed Sister Sue.
In a low voice Mr. Brown said to his wife:
“Don’t let the children see that you are worried. I don’t know why the ship has gone and left us, but I know she will come back. We mustn’t frighten the children.” ”

“ Pott,” went on Bunny. “Always, when anybody is sick, people go to the hospital to see them—I mean well people, and we’re well. We can take things to the hospital for Mr. Pott.”
“What can we take him?” asked Sue, falling in with the idea.
“Apples,” announced Bunny. “Always they take fruit to folks that are sick in the hospital.”
“Yes, and flowers, too,” said Sue. “Once Sadie West’s mother was sick in the hospital and Sadie took her flowers.”
“Sure, we can take flowers, too,” agreed Bunny. “There are flowers growing over there,” and he pointed to a distant meadow gay with dandelions and daisies. ”

“ There is a little sheltered bay where we can land without going through the surf. It will be several hours before the tide is high enough to try to get the Beacon off the sand-bar, and while we are waiting we can go on the island.”
“Are any other passengers going ashore?” Mrs. Brown wanted to know.
“I think we are the only ones,” her husband said. “The children will like it.”
“Yes, they’ll enjoy it,” said their mother.
When the boat was lowered and Bunny and Sue were helped into it, they shouted with delight at the prospect of landing on the island where the cocoanut trees grew. ”

“ Thank you,” quickly answered Sue, understanding what Bunny meant. If you were pretending, you must do it in everything. And since she was pretending to be a grown-up passenger she would not, naturally, have a doll. But she could make believe her doll was her little girl. “I’ll go and get my daughter now.” She had already taken her place on the “ship,” but now, as she was about to get off, she remembered that the grass was “water.”
“How am I going to get my daughter?” she asked. “I can’t jump into the ocean to go for her,” and she pointed to the grass. ”

“ The wind that blew across her decks was as balmy as the hot breezes of summer, though this was only early spring, or had been when Bunny and Sue left Bellemere.
“It’s always summer in the south, isn’t it, Daddy?” asked Sue of her father when she and her brother were talking about the warm weather.
“Well, yes, it is if you go far enough south,” he said. “They don’t have winter in the far south, but they have what is called the rainy season, and that at times is worse than [Pg 123] our winter, though it is never cold. ”

“ As Bunny had said, the storm had stopped and the sun was shining. It was a lovely morning and the sea was calm. Cocoanut Island was a beautiful place.
Will and Sam had come out from beneath the boat and were down at the edge of the sea washing their hands and faces.
“We’ll soon have some hot coffee made for you!” called Will, for the alcohol stove had been put back in the boat locker with the spare food. ”

“ Brown rested under the shade of the cocoanut palm trees.
They could look off to the Beacon which was still aground on the sand-bar, no effort having as yet been made to pull her off into deep water.
Almost before the children realized it noon had come, and Mrs. Brown set out a lunch from the well-filled basket. Some was given the sailors, who took their portions down near the rowboat, pulled up on the beach.
“That steward gave us enough for several meals,” said Mrs. Brown. “We shall have to take a great deal of it back with us. There is no use leaving it here on the island. No one lives here.” ”

“ Bunny held up on a stick the bunch of seaweed which was what really had tangled itself around Sue’s legs.
“Play in the water a little longer,” called Mrs. Brown to the children. “Then we are going to walk around the island.”
“Oh, that’ll be fun!” cried Bunny. “Maybe [Pg 198] we’ll find something. Come on, Sue! I’ve waded enough.”
“So have I,” said his sister. “Do you think we’ll find any flowers, Mother? I want to get some for Elizabeth.”
“Pooh! A doll doesn’t want any flowers!” cried Bunny. “She can’t smell them!”
“My Elizabeth doll can smell!” retorted Sue. ”

“ Brown smiled at Bunny and Sue. The sailors also realized that they must pretend it was all in fun, and they were quite ready to play their parts.
“Well, shall we row back to the island?” asked Sam.
“Yes,” answered Mr. Brown. “There is no use in rowing after the ship any longer. She may not be back until late to-night.”
“Shall we stay here until then?” asked Bunny.
“Yes,” answered his mother.
“We have enough to eat,” went on the little boy. “There’s some in our basket yet and there’s more in the boat.”
“Yes, there’s plenty in the boat for all of us for a week,” said Sam Trend. ”

“ The treasure is lost too—the treasure is gone! Oh, if I could only find my lost son!” Then the man closed his eyes and lay very quiet.
“He’s a sailor, just as I used to be!” exclaimed old Jed Winkler, whom Bunny Brown and his sister knew very well. “He’s badly hurt, too. He’ll have to lay up in the sick bay a spell, I reckon! Catch hold of him, somebody, and we’ll lift him!”
While Bunny Brown and Sue looked on, their mother and Uncle Tad, an old soldier [Pg 14] who lived with the Brown family, came out of the house.
“Bring the poor man into our house,” ordered Mrs. Brown. ”

“ Brown, by turns, with Bunny and Sue putting in words now and then, told the story.
[Pg 235]
“There’s no doubt of it,” said Harry Pott when the story was finished. “The man who was thrown off his horse when your children were playing store is my father. I hope he wasn’t badly hurt!”
“I think he will get well,” said Mr. Brown. “And he surely will when he hears that you are alive. It will be good news to him.”
“And he wants the treasure, too,” said Bunny Brown. “Don’t forget about the treasure!”
“Treasure?” repeated Harry Pott. “I don’t know anything about any treasure. ”