smeralda_, or Arthur Wright's _Invincible_, should reach the
opposite shore in the shortest space of time. Occasionally a good ship
would get becalmed in the middle of the pool, in which case its owner
would have to wade to the rescue, probably finding it caught in a mass
of oar-weed, or even entangled in the floating tentacles of a huge
jelly-fish. The children had made a nice aquarium not far from the hut,
and in this they put specimens of every different kind of sea-weed on
the island, as well as crabs, anemones, limpets, sea cucumbers,
star-fishes, zoophytes, or any other treasures of the deep that they
might be lucky enough to collect; while the boys, I regret to say, took
a keen delight in securing a couple of hermit crabs, and setting the
pugnacious pair to fight in a small arena of sand which they prepared
specially for the purpose, somewhat in the same manner as our
unregenerate forefathers devoted certain portions of their gardens to
the formation of cock-pits.

Another favourite amusement was to divide into two regiments, each under
the leadership of suitable officers, and, armed with pea-shooters, to
conduct a series of Volunteer manoeuvres upon the shore. The defending
party would throw up ramparts of sand, and duly garrison their
stronghold, while the enemy would attack with the ferocious zeal of a
band of North American Indians or a gang of Chinese pirates, being
greeted by a volley of fire from the pea-shooters, and missiles in the
shape of whelks' eggs, the dried air-vessels of the bladder-wrack,
little rolled-up balls of slimy green sea-weed, or anything else which
could be flung as a projectile without injuring the recipients too
severely. Very exciting struggles sometimes took place for the
possession of a fortress or the securing of an outpost; and I think the
girls were really as keen as the boys in this amateur warfare, Letty and
Winnie Rokeby proving deadly shots with their pea-shooters, and Aggie
Wright becoming quite an admirable scout.

Isobel undertook the ambulance department, and made a delightful
hospital with beds dug out of sand, and a dispensary fitted with empty
bottles collected from the sand-bank. She installed herself here as a
Red Cross Sister, with Ruth Barrington for a helper, and was ready to
doctor the combatants, who were carried in suffering from various
imaginary wounds, the sole flaw in her arrangements being that the
invalids insisted upon getting well too quickly, and le