"Blyton, Enid - Adv 01 - Adventurous Four" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

They buried the fish. Andy stood up and looked all round the cliff. "I wonder if there's a cave or anything we could sleep in at night," he said. But there didnt seem to be any cave at all, though the children hunted carefully all along the cliff.
"How will anyone know we are here?" asked Jill. "We shall have to put up some sort of a sign, shan't we, to show any passing ship dr steamer that we are here?"
"Yes," said Andy. "I've been thinking about that. I'll take down the ship's sail, and we'll tie it to a tree on the top of the cliff. That will be a fine signal."
"Good idea!" said Tom. "It will flap in the wind and be seen for miles."
"We'll find a sleeping-place for the night before we do that," said Andy. "It looks like rain again now--see that low cloud over there? We don't want to be soaked in our sleep. Come on."
They left the sandy cove and climbed up the steep cliff. It was hard going, but they got to the top at last, and once more looked across the island. They could not see right across it because the hill in the middle stopped their view--so they did not know how big or small it was. All they knew was that, at present, they could not see any sign of anyone else there, or of any house or other building.
"How I'd love to see a cow or two!" said Jill.
"Whatever for?" said Mary in surprise. "I didn't know you liked cows so much, Jill."
"I don't," said Jill. "But cows would mean a farmer, silly--and a farmer means a farmhouse--and a farmhouse means lots of people, and help, of course!"
The others laughed. "Well, let's hope we see one or two cows for you, Jill," said Tom. "Which way shall we go, Andy?"
"We'll make our way to the huV said Andy. "There's bracken there, and heather, and maybe we can find a hill-cave to snuggle in. Bracken and heather make a fine bed, and we've got the rugs for covers."
They ran to the hill. It had a little wood of windblown pines and birches, but there was no cave in the hillside they could shelter in. It was covered with thick-growing bracken and heather, with a few stunted gorse-bushes--but there was no place that would really give them a safe shelter to sleep.
"Well, we'llhave to rig up a tent of some sort," said Andy at last. "I'm not going to be soaked through tonight. I've had enough of that to last me for quite a while."
"A tent, Andy!" said Tom. "Wherever would we get a tent from? Buy it from a shop, I suppose?"
"I'm going to get the old sail off the! boat," said Andy. "We can use it for a signal by day and a tent by night. It's big enough to cover us all quite well."
"Andy, you have got good ideas!" said Jill. "I should never have thought of that. Well, shall we go back then and help you?"
"No," said Andy. "You stay here with Tom and help him to build a kind of tent-house that we can just drape the sail over. You'll want some stout brunches, stuck well into the ground. I'll go and get the sail."
Andy went off down to the shore again, and clambered and waded out to the boat. He was soon taking down the old sail.
The others hunted for good branches. The ones lying on the ground were too brittle and old, they found.
"They'll make good firewood," said Tom. "we'llhave to break a few growing branches off the trees."
It was difficult to do this, but they managed it at last. Then they drove the stout sticks into the heathery ground and made a kind of circle with them, big enough to hold them all.
They had just finished when Andy came back, bent double over the heavy sail. He threw it dewn and panted.
"I thought I'd never get it up the cliff," he said. "I say, you've made a fine set of walls. The sail will go over them nicely."
Eight willing hands helped to'arrange the big brown sail over the circle of sticks stuck firmly into the ground. The weight of the sail kept it down, and when the children bad finished, they had made a kind of round, brown tent, with no doorway. But as the children could get in anywhere under the tent simply by lifting up the sail, it didn't matter having no doorway.
"We'll gather a nice pile of heather and put it inside the tent to lie on," said Tom. "And with our rugs, too, we shall be as cosy and wafm as toast! In fact, we may be much too hot!"
"Well, if we are, we'll just Lift up one side of the tent,and let the breeze blow in," said Jill. "Oh, I do feel excited! I really feel as if we've got a sort of little home, now we've made this tent!"
"There isn't time to explore the island now," said Andy, looking in surprise at the sinking sun. "We've taken ages over the tent. We'll go all over the island to-morrow."
"That will be fun," said Mary. "I do wonder what we'll find!"


CHAPTER 5
Making the Best of Things

THE children were all hungry again. Andy thought it would be better to bring everything up from the shore, and put it near their tent.
"We may have to make our tent a sort of home," he said. "We don't want to have to keep climbing up and down that rocky cliff every time we want a cup or a kettle! Besides, we are quite near the spring here, and we can easily get water whenever we want to."
So for the next hour or so the children fetched all their belongings. Some of them were very difficult to get up the cliff. The gramophone was almost impossible till Andy thought of the idea of tying a rope round it and hauling it gently up by that.
"Golly! All the records are broken!" said Tom in dismay, as he picked up the cracked records.
"Yes--they fell and broke when that dreadful storm was on," said Jill. "Leave them behind. They're no use. There's just one that's not broken--now, where is it?"
They found it at last and looked at it.
"What a pity! This is a silly record--it would be the only one that's left unbroken!" said Mary. "On one side it's a girl singing a iind of lullaby, without even any music--and on the other it's nursery rhymes. The silliest one we've got!"
"Oh well--bring it along," said Tom. "And where's my camera? It doesn't look as if I'll find any good pictures to take--but I may as well have it."
By the time they had got everything to the tent they were really very tired. They cooked the rest of the fish and opened a tin of peaches. They ate an apple each, broke a bar of chocolate into four pieces, and then drank some hot cocoa. It was a good meal and they enjoyed it. The sun was now almost gone and the first star was shining brightly.
"Well, we've had an adventurous day," said Jill, yawning. "I slept all the morning--but I feel awfully sleepy again already."
"We'll turn in early," said Andy. "I'm tired too."
"We can't clean our teeth," said Jill, who was always very particular about nails and teeth and things like that. "I wish I had a tooth-brush."
"Well, here's a brush for you," said Tom, with a grin, handing Jill the brush that was used to sweep bits of fish off the deck. "Brush your teeth with this."
Jill took it and at once brushed Tom's hair with it. Tom was disgusted.
"Don't, you cuckoo!" he said. "I shall smell of fish all night long."
"Come on," said Andy. "We want more heather for our beds. Tom, stamp out the fire. We don't want to set the hill alight, and the heather is very dry."
Tom stamped out the fire. The girls filled the tent with more, heather. Andy took the largest rug and spread it all over the springy pile.