rights."

"Only to wattle a screen! But I don't know what wattling a screen is. Who
does?"

"Why, you get some of the canes that grow a little farther up the river,
and a certain long wiry grass I have marked down, and then you fix and
weave till you make a screen from tree to tree; this could be patched
with wet clay; I know where there is plenty of that. Meantime see what is
done to our hands. The crown of this great palm-tree lies at the southern
aperture of your house, and blocks it entirely up. That will keep off the
only cold wind, the south wind, from you to-night. Then look at these
long, spiky leaves interlaced over your head. (These trees are screw
pines.) There is a roof ready made. You must have another roof underneath
that, but it will do for a day or two."

"But you will wattle the screen directly," said Helen. "Begin at once,
please. I am anxious to see a screen wattled."

"Well," said Welch, who had joined them, "landsmen are queer folk, the
best of 'em. Why, miss, it would take him a week to screen you with
rushes and reeds, and them sort of weeds; and I'd do it in half an hour,
if I was the Tom Welch I used to be. Why, there's spare canvas enough in
the boat to go between these four trees breast high, and then there's the
foresel besides; the mainsel is all you and me shall want, sir."

"Oh, excuse me," said Miss Rolleston, "I will not be sheltered at the
expense of my friends."

"Welch, you are a trump," said Hazel, and ran off for the spare canvas.
He brought it and the carpenter's basket of tools. They went to work, and
Miss Rolleston insisted on taking part in it. Finding her so disposed,
Hazel said that they had better divide their labors, since the time was
short. Accordingly he took the ax and chopped off a great many scales of
the palm-tree, and lighted a great fire between the trees, while the
other two worked on the canvas.

"This is to dry the soil as well as cook our provisions," said he; "and
now I must go and find food. Is there anything you fancy?" He turned his
head from the fire he was lighting and addressed this question both to
Welch and Miss Rolleston.

Miss Rolleston stared at this question, then smiled, and, in the true
spirit of a lady, said, "I think I should like a good large cocoanut, if
you can find one." She felt sure there was no other eatable thing in the
whole island.

"I wants a cabbage," said Welch, in a loud voice.

"Oh, Mr. Welch, we are not at home," said