ainy season, which lasts from fifteen to
twenty-five days in the climate to which I have been accustomed."

_Mother._--"Then there is the more necessity for our exerting ourselves.
Tell me, Schillie, what do you think?"

_Schillie._--"I think nothing. If we are to be drowned, it's the same to
me whether it is by rain or sea."

_Mother._--"Nay, you are unkind. It is at moments like these when clear
heads and quick wits are most invaluable. You surely don't intend to
burden me with the sole arrangement of this painful and arduous
undertaking."

_Schillie._--"I don't see what you have got to bother yourself about.
You would build a hut spite of all I could say, and the first shower
drove it down on your ears."

Several voices exclaimed, "Oh, cousin Schillie, a shower! did you call
that dreadful storm a shower!" while Madame lifted up her hands and
eyes, and said, "it was a fearful deluge."

_Schillie._--"Yes, yes, I dare say it was rather heavy; but it is
nothing to what we shall have."

"Heaven forbid," again exclaimed Madame, while the little ones seemed
equally aghast at the idea.

_Mother._--"I grant that building more huts is out of the question, and,
besides, we have not time, I suppose, but we must do something to save
what we have left of our property. Come, girls, what can you suggest?"

_Sybil._--"I can only think of covering everything with those great big
plantain leaves."

_Serena._--"And we can put stones on them to keep them down; and by
putting a great many layers, I don't think it is possible the rain can
get through."

_Mother._--"And you, Gatty."

"Oh," said Gatty, getting very red, and twisting her pocket handkerchief
into a series of knots, "I don't know much about such things, but,"
seeing she must speak out, "perhaps stowing them away under a big tree
would do."

_Zoe._--"I think the same as Gatty, Mother, for it must be impossible
for the heaviest rain to get through some of the thick trees out there."

_Winny._--"I am not certain which plan I think best; but I will wait and
hear what Mother thinks before I quite decide."

_Lilly._--"I think digging a deep hole, and burying them in the sand
would be the best."

_Oscar._--"Just as if the rain would not go through the sand. You always
think of such out-of-the-way things, Lilly."

_Mother._--"But I do not think hers's such a bad idea, I think it a very
good one for such a little girl; but what do you think best yourself?"

_Osca