few wild fruits that Eleanor had been able to
find that morning.

The single dirty room which the houseboat party discovered had now been
transformed. This lodge was now used for the living quarters of the
houseboat derelicts, the other little house for their sleeping
apartment. The hemlock beds had been swept away, and the whole place
scrubbed as clean as possible.

The room was bright with the October sunlight. The walls were hung with
trophies of the woods, branches of scarlet leaves and vines of wild
clematis. In one corner of the room the big wood basket was filled with
nuts of every kind, gathered after the first frost, the girls' sole
provision against the winter. A string of fresh fish, Madge's and
Lillian's morning catch, was floating about in a bucket of fresh water.

The girls gathered around the table. Miss Jenny Ann lifted up the great
iron pot and poured a savory stew into a great bowl.

"Guess what it is, Phil?" cried Madge. The dish was filled with
potatoes, brought over from the houseboat larder, and big pieces of a
dark, rich looking meat.

Phil shook her head. "I can't guess. I'd rather eat," she replied.

"It's old 'Marse Terrapin.' Don't you remember him in the story of
Uncle Remus? Lillian and I found him strolling along the shore. Who
says we are not full-fledged Crusoes?"

CHAPTER XIV

CAUGHT IN A STAMPEDE

"Good-bye, Madge, dear!" sighed Eleanor mournfully.

"Say 'au revoir,' but not 'good-bye,' sweet Coz," sang Madge lightly.

She was strapping her school satchel across her back like a knapsack.
The girls were attired in their shortest, darkest gowns, and ready for
the road.

Miss Jenny Ann hovered near, her face very white and her eyes swollen.
"I feel I am very wrong in letting you girls attempt it alone," she
protested. "To think that I should have been overtaken with an attack
of influenza just as we were about to cross the island is too awful!
Don't you think you had better wait until I am well enough to go with
you?"

Madge shook her bronze head firmly; Phil's black head followed suit.

"My dear Miss Jenny Ann," protested Madge, "the men Phil saw may have
come onto this island simply to stay only a day or so. Unless we go in
search of them at once, they may escape us altogether."

"Don't let anybody worry about us," Phil urged. "Madge and I will be as
right as right can be. Suppose we find the island so large that we can
not get to the other side and back in one