took the road that she had taken early
that morning.

She slipped behind the hedge as the factory hands who lived outside
Maraucourt came tramping along the road on their way home. She did not
wish to be seen by them. While she waited for them to pass she gathered
a quantity of rushes and ferns and made a broom. Her new home was clean
and comfortable, but with a little attention it could be made more so,
and she would pick a lot of dried ferns and make a good soft bed to lie
upon.

Forgetting her fatigue, she quickly tied the broom together with some
wisps of straw and fastened it to a stick. No less quickly a bunch of
ferns was arranged in a mass so that she could easily carry them to her
hut.

The road was now deserted as far as she could see. Hoisting the bed of
ferns on her back and taking the broom in her hands, she ran down the
hill and across the road. When she came to the narrow path she had to
slacken her speed, for the ferns caught in the branches and she could
not pass without going down on her knees.

Upon arriving at the island, she began at once to do her housework. She
threw away the old ferns, then commenced to sweep everywhere, the roof,
the walls and the ground.

As she looked out over the pond and saw the reeds growing thickly, a
bright idea came to her. She needed some shoes. One does not go about a
deserted island in leather shoes. She knew how to plait, and she would
make a pair of soles with the reeds and get a little canvas for the tops
and tie them on with ribbon.

As soon as she had finished her sweeping she ran out to the pond and
picked a quantity of the most flexible reeds and carried them back to
the door of her hut and commenced to work. But after she had made a
plait of reeds about a yard long she found that this sole that she was
making would be too light; because it was too hollow, there would be no
solidity, and that before plaiting the reeds they would have to undergo
a preparation which in crushing the fibres would transform them into
coarse strings.

However, this did not stop her. Now she needed a hammer, of course she
could not find one, but what she did find was a big round stone, which
served her purpose very well indeed. Then she commenced to beat the
reeds. Night came on while she was still at work, and she went to sleep
dreaming of the beautiful sandals tied with blue ribbons which she would
have, for she did not doubt but that she would succeed with what she had
u