"Go 'way, child, this is man's work," replied Dick, as he swung
easily on his oar, but with a vim that drove the dingy through the
water at good speed.

Johnny begged for his turn, but didn't get it for two hours, by
which time the tops of the cocoa palms could be seen. Then Captain
Tom began to feel better and talked of doing his share of the work,
upon which Dick whistled a few bars of "Go 'Way Back and Sit Down,"
which the captain seemed to understand, for he gave no more trouble.

It was nearly dark when they landed on a beach at the border of a
forest of cocoa palms and in a few minutes Johnny had a dozen young
nuts on the ground and was hacking at the tough husk of one with his
knife. When the ape-faced end of the nut had been laid bare and the
eye cut out with a pen-knife blade, he gave the nut to Dick, who was
soon absorbing the most delicious drink of his life. There was about
a pint of milk in each nut, and it took a round dozen to quench the
thirst of the three. They broke open half-grown or custard nuts and
ate their pulpy meat and they tried some of the hard flesh of the
mature nut.

The castaways built a fire on the beach for cheer and warmth and
piled up fallen leaves of the palm to soften their beds on the sand.
Captain Tom told the boys that the plantation house was not
occupied, and that the next house down the coast was a number of
miles distant and just opposite to the course they wanted to take.
He then added that he was no more captain now than his companions
and would give no orders, but he advised that they start up the
coast before sun-up and do a lot of their sculling in the cool of