lovely now, but I shouldn't care about sleeping in the boat in a rainstorm, even under a macintosh. And you know how it rains in these tropical parts.""It'll be great fun," said Tommy, "but I don't see how it's to be done."
"We'll have to cut down some saplings with our jack-knives. I don't quite see myself what we shall do next, but that will be a start, anyway, and I dare say ideas will come as we go along."
"That doesn't sound much like an architect," said Tommy, "but let's try. It will give us something to do and keep us from getting catty."
Elizabeth smiled as she saw her intentions thus realized.
"We must choose our site," she said. "Surveying, don't they call it?"
"All settlements are made near running water," said Mary, "so it ought to be near the stream."
They followed with their eyes the course of the bright little stream as it flowed out of the woodland down to the shore. There was no suitable spot for the hut near at hand, and to find one involved going farther than they had yet ventured to go. But having now
a definite object in view they found themselves a little more courageous, and springing up they set off along the bank of the stream towards the higher ground. They walked cautiously and in silence, looking about them with wide-open eyes, ready to flee at the slightest alarming sight or sound. Suddenly Tommy said in a whisper--
"Here! this is the very place."
She indicated a grassy knoll some ten or twelve feet above the bed of the stream. The girls stopped at its edge and looked at it. On the inland side it was fringed with a row of small trees; seaward the view was uninterrupted.
"It looks nice," said Mary. "Let's measure it."
27
Elizabeth, being the tallest, stepped the grassy plot from end to end and from side to side.
"I make it about twenty feet by sixteen," she said, "just about the size of our dining-room at home. I think it will do splendidly. There's water close at hand; there are plenty of saplings in the woods beyond; and the hillside will protect us from storms, unless they come from the sea."
"And what a lovely outlook it has!" said Mary, turning towards the sea. "We couldn't have a nicer place."
"Then we will fix on it," said Elizabeth. "Now who's to be architect?"
"Oh, you, Bess!" said Tommy; "we're no good at that."
"I'm afraid I'm not either," said Elizabeth, laughing. "But I suppose we ought to put up some posts for the walls, and weave rushes
and things between them. Anyway, the first thing is to cut down some stout saplings that will be strong enough."
"Well, there are plenty in the woods; quite close too," said Tommy.
"But how can we cut them down?" asked Mary; "we haven't axes or saws." "We have our knives, though," said Tommy. "Come on, let's begin."
They went into the wood, where the trees at the edge were not at all dense, and selected several saplings of about the same height and thickness. Then each dropped on her knees before one of the saplings, scratched a circular line on the bark and began to hack away at this with the knife. For some time nothing was heard but the slight sounds made by the knives; each girl worked hard as though engaged in a competition. But presently Tommy straightened her back, and uttered a sort of sighing grunt.
"How are you getting on?" asked Elizabeth, without desisting from her task.
"All right," cried Tommy, stooping and setting to work furiously. "They shan't beat me," she said to herself.
But in a few minutes Mary gave a plaintive little exclamation, dropped her knife, and rubbed her right hand with her left. "You're soon tired," said Tommy, working harder than ever.
"I think my tree must be a specially tough one," said Mary. "I don't seem to make much impression, and my wrist does ache so."
"Take a rest, dear," said Elizabeth. "Shouldn't we get on better if two worked at the same tree while the other rested? We could take
it in turns. When we have cut down the first, we shall have something to show for our work."
"A good idea!" said Tommy, springing up and running to Elizabeth's tree. "You take first spell off, Mary."
The two girls worked at the trunk from opposite sides. The air was growing hotter and hotter, the insects became very troublesome, and as time went on and the incisions they had made in the sappy wood were still very shallow, both felt very much discouraged.
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