"Me eat lollunge," piped up Rosy Posy. "Buffaro Bill would "ike a lollunge."
"So you shall, Baby. Brother"ll fix one for you."
And the shipwrecked Captain carefully prepared an orange, and gave it bit by bit into the eager, rosy fingers.
"Of all things in the world," said Kitty, "I like chocolate creams best."
"Oh, so do I, if I"m not hungry!" said Marjorie. "I think I like different things at different times."
"Well, it doesn"t matter much what you like now," said King, as he gave the last section of orange to Rosy Posy, "for everything is all eaten up. Where"d you get those eggs, Mops? We never hardly have them except on picnics."
"I saw them in the pantry. Ellen had them for a salad or something. So I just took them, and told her she could boil some more."
"You"re a good one, Mopsy," said her brother, looking at her in evident admiration. "The servants never get mad at you. Now if I had hooked those eggs, Ellen would have blown me up sky-high."
"Oh, I just smiled at her," said Marjorie, "and then it was all right.
Now, what are we going to do next?"
"Hark!" said Kingdon, who was again the shipwrecked mariner. "I hear a distant sound as of fierce wild beasts growling and roaring."
"My child, my child!" shrieked Kitty, s.n.a.t.c.hing up Arabella. "She will be torn by dreadful lions and tigers!"
"We must protect ourselves," declared Marjorie. "Captain, can"t you build a barricade? They always do that in books."
"Ay, ay, ma"am. But also we must hoist a flag, a signal of distress. For should a ship come by, they might stop and rescue us."
"But we have no flag. What can we use for one?"
"Give me your daughter"s petticoat," said the Captain to Kitty.
"Not so!" said Kitty, who was fond of dramatic phrases. "Arabella"s petticoat is spandy clean, and I won"t have it used to make a flag."
"I"ll give you a flag," said Marjorie. "Take my hair-ribbon." She began to pull off her red ribbon, but Kingdon stopped her.
"No," he said, "that won"t do. We"re not playing Pirates. It must be a white flag. It"s for a signal of distress."
Marjorie thought a moment. There really seemed to be no white flag available.
"All right!" she cried, in a moment. "I"ll give you a piece of my petticoat. It"s an old one, and the ruffle is torn anyhow."
In a flash, impetuous Marjorie had torn a good-sized bit out of her little white petticoat, and the Captain fastened it to a long branch he had broken from the maple tree.
This he managed, with the aid of some stones, to fasten in an upright position, and then they sat down to watch for a pa.s.sing sail.
"Buffaro Bill so s"eepy," announced that small person, and, with fat old Boffin for a pillow, Rosy Posy calmly dropped off into a morning nap.
But the others suffered various dreadful vicissitudes. They were attacked by wild beasts, which, though entirely imaginary, required almost as much killing as if they had been real.
Kitty shot or la.s.soed a great many, but she declined to engage in the hand-to-hand encounters with tigers and wolves, such as Marjorie and Kingdon undertook, for fear she"d be thrown down on the ground. And, indeed, her fears were well founded, for the valiant fighters were often thrown by their fierce adversaries, and rolled over and over, only to pick themselves up and renew the fray.
More exciting still was an attack from the natives of the island. They were horrible savages, with tomahawks, and they approached with blood-curdling yells.
Needless to say that, after a fearful battle, the natives were all slain or put to rout, and the conquerors, exhausted but triumphant, sat round their camp-fire and boasted of their valorous deeds.
As noontime drew near, the settlers on the island began to grow hungry again, and, strange to say, the imaginary birds they shot and ate were not entirely satisfying.
Buffalo Bill, too, waked up, and demanded a jink of water.
But none could leave the island and brave the perils of the boundless ocean, unless in a rescuing ship.
For a long time they waited. They waved their white flag, and they even shouted for help.
But the "island" was at some distance from the house or street and none came to rescue them.
At last, they saw a huge, white-covered wagon slowly moving along the back drive.
"A sail! A sail!" cried the Captain. "What, ho! Help! Help!"
The other shipwrecked ones joined the cry, and soon the wagon drew a little nearer, and then stopped.
"Help! Help!" cried the children in chorus.
It was the butcher"s wagon, and they knew it well, but this season there was a new driver who didn"t know the Maynard children.
"What"s the matther?" he cried, jumping from his seat, and running across the gra.s.s to the quartette.
"We"re shipwrecked!" cried Marjorie. "We can"t get home. Oh, save us from a cruel fate! Carry us back to our far-away fireside!"
"Help!" cried Kitty, faintly. "My child is ill, and I can no longer survive!"
Dramatic Kitty sank in a heap on the ground, and the butcher"s boy was more bewildered than ever.
"Save me!" cried Rosy Posy, toddling straight to him, and putting up her arms. "Save Buffaro Bill first,--me an" Boffin."
This was more intelligible, and the butcher"s boy picked up the smiling child, and with a few long strides reached his cart, and deposited her therein.
"Me next! Me next!" screamed Marjorie. "I"m fainting, too!" With a thud, she fell in a heap beside Kitty.
"The saints presarve us!" exclaimed the frightened Irishman. "Whativer is the matther wid these childher? Is it pizened ye are?"
"No, only starving," said Marjorie, but her faint voice was belied by the merry twinkle in her eyes, which she couldn"t suppress at the sight of the man"s consternation.
"Aha! It"s shammin" ye are! I see now."
"It"s a game," explained Kingdon. "We"re shipwrecked on a desert island, and you"re a pa.s.sing captain of a small sailing vessel. Will you take us aboard?"
"Shure, sir," said the other, his face aglow with Irish wit and intelligence. "I persave yer manin". "Deed I will resky ye, but how will ye get through the deep wathers to me ship forninst?"