of combination of a Viking's hall with a
pirate's cave or an Indian wigwam. The face of the cliff which formed
the wall on one side was full of ledges and crevices which served
admirably for cupboards, a few nails driven into the boards answered for
hat pegs, and it was no difficult matter to put up shelves from odd
pieces of drift-wood.

It was amazing how the work brought out the varying capacities of the
settlers. To every one's surprise, Arthur Wright developed a perfect
genius for carpentry. He had borrowed a few tools from a friendly
joiner in the town, and constructed quite a tidy little table, forming
the legs from broken masts; and he managed to make a door for the
fortress of the best portions of three rotten planks, fastening it on
with hinges cut from an old leather strap, and even putting a latch
which would open with a string pulled from the outside.

While the boys did the harder part of the work, the girls contented
themselves with the more feminine element of artistic decoration. They
thatched the roof elaborately with masses of brown bladder-wrack
sea-weed, tying it securely with pieces of cord; they fixed a row of
twenty-one sea urchins, with the spines on, over the door as a coat of
arms, one to represent each member of the club; and pink and white fan
shells were nailed alternately round the window, with yellow periwinkles
wedged between. A little garden was carefully laid out, a wall being
made of stones and sand, and a path of fine gravel leading up to the
door. Green sea-weed was put down to represent grass, the most wonderful
arrangements in the way of cockles, mussels, and limpets took the place
of flower-beds, and a few sea-pinks and harebells planted in tins
rescued from the sand-bank adorned the window-sill. Inside, a fireplace
had been built with stones at the rocky end, a hole being made in the
roof to let out the smoke, and seats were dug from the sand sufficient
to accommodate the whole party. A tin kettle and a frying-pan, purchased
by subscription, constituted the cooking utensils of the camp, and the
members waxed so eager over the domestic arrangements of their hut that
they spent all their pennies at the cheap stalls in the market on tin
mugs and plates and other articles likely to be of service to the
community. Eric Wright denied himself toffee or caramels for three whole
days--a heroic effort on his part--that he might contribute a certain
gorgeous scarlet tea-tray on which he h