till, for there were seven canoes full of cruel savages sailing for the
island.

Then we would all creep close to the chimney on the shady side, and not
go out for two weeks, which meant about fifteen minutes (Billy counted
seven minutes to a week), and we liked this part of _Robinson Crusoe_
very much indeed, 'cause then Billy would give us what he called
"rations"--nice sugary raisins, dried beef, and seed cookies, which he
said were cocoa-nuts given to him by monkeys that lived in tall trees in
another part of the island, where we should go with him some time when
he was sure the savages had left.

Oh, if you never played _Robinson Crusoe_, you can't think what fun we
had playing it, and we played almost the whole book through, sometimes
one part, and sometimes another, and whatever part we played, Billy
tried to have it just as near like what the book said as it could be
made without a real ship, a real ocean, and a real island; and he was so
in earnest that it seemed real to me, and I used to feel shivery and
scared when he cried out that the savages were coming.

There were all sorts of nice rubbishy things in the cellar to play with,
'cause everything that got broken or too old for use in the house--or
"the wreck," as Billy called it--got thrown out into the old cellar:
empty fruit cans, broken dishes, leaky old pans and dippers, parts of
broken chairs and broken looking-glasses, and old kettles and
frying-pans; bits of shingles, old nails, and piles and piles of clam
and oyster shells; and Billy knew the minute he saw a thing what to do
with it.

Kate and I helped with pieces of muslin, ribbon, and old calico, so that
every day the little square place behind the chimney was more and more
like Robinson Crusoe's own house on the real island.

One day papa stopped and looked at us as he was going by, and said he
was afraid it wasn't a safe place for us, the old chimney might tumble
down on us, or we might cut our feet on some of the broken things; but
mother only smiled and said, "Oh, do let the children be happy." I guess
she was jolly to play with when she was a little girl.

She often came out, or sent Biddy out with a nice turn-over, or a plate
of hot ginger cookies; and after papa spoke about the chimney, she
climbed down into the cellar, and went over and felt the chimney all
round to see if it was quite firm. Once we coaxed her to stay with us
during the two weeks while the savages were on the island.