he liberty
of using these, no matter whom they belong to. Of course we're not
living much on salt meat, but even if we don't get scurvy we ought to
have all the vegetables and green things we can get hold of. Now, onions
mayn't smell as nice as some things, but there's no better medicine in
this sort of life."

"Leave them to me," said John, who had grown to be quite a good cook,
perhaps by reason of his natural inclination for good things to eat.
"I'll make a stew of them with some of that bear meat and some of
Skookie's bulbs here. I'll bet we'll have the finest meal to-night we
have ever had on the island." And so they all agreed. Late that night
they rolled up in their bedding on the grass beds of their new house,
and soon slept soundly within close reach of the waves of the sea, whose
steady sound along the beach came to them far more plainly here than had
been the case at the older barabbara.

After this the boys used this new house more than the older house, and
little by little moved most of their belongings down there, although
they still kept their flag-staff up on the upper beach in the hope that
some passing vessel might come into their bay and see their signal.

XXVI

THE JOURNEY AND THE STORM

"Now I've got a notion," said Rob, one morning not long after they had
finished their new barabbara, "that if we were asked about this big
island where we are living we couldn't tell very much regarding it.
We've only been over a little strip of country around here. I don't
suppose we've ever been more than five or six miles from camp yet, even
when we climbed highest in the mountains beyond the creek. Yet we can
see over thirty miles of country from here. I'd sort of like to have a
trip up one of those other valleys." He pointed a hand to the farther
shore of the bay which lay before their gaze, level and calm as a
mirror.

"That's what I've thought more than once, too," said Jesse. "Why not
make an exploring expedition over there?"

"We couldn't do it and get back in time for supper," demurred John.

"No," smiled Rob, "but we could have several suppers over there. Why not
go across and camp out a night or two, and just rough it a little bit?
You can see that there are pine woods on the mountains over there, and
wherever there is pine it is always comfortable camping. We could take
some grub along, of course, and our rifles."

"How'd we sleep?" asked Jesse. "It has a way of raining in this country