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said Jack. “I don’t like hurting things any more than you do. But I know quite well how to skin rabbits. It’s a man’s job, that, so you two girls can leave it to Mike and me. So long as you can cook the rabbits for dinner, that’s all you need worry about. And ever since Peggy said she wished we had a cow and some hens, I’ve been thinking about it. I believe we could manage to get them over here on to the island - then we would be all right!”
    Mike, Peggy, and Nora stared at Jack in amazement. What a surprising boy he was! However could they get a cow and hens?
    “Hurry up and get the supper, girls,” said Jack, smiling at their surprised faces. “I’m hungry. We’ll think about things tomorrow. We’ll have our meal now and a quiet read afterwards, then to bed early. Tomorrow we’ll go on with the house.”
    Soon they were munching bread and margarine, and eating lettuce. They saved the currants for another time. Then they got out books and papers and sprawled on the soft heather, reading whilst the daylight lasted. Then they had a dip in the lake, threw on their clothes again, and settled down for the night in their heathery beds.
    “Good-night, everyone,” said Mike. But nobody answered - they were all asleep!

Willow House is Finished

    The next day, after a meal of fish and lettuce, the children were ready to go on with the building of their house in the willow thicket. It was lucky that Jack had caught more fish on his line that morning, for stores were getting low. There were still plenty of potatoes, but not much else. Jack made up his mind that he would have to take the boat and see what he could bring back in it that night. There was no doubt but that food was going to be their great difficulty.
    All morning the four children worked hard at the house. Jack cut down enough young willows to make the walls. Mike dug the holes to drive in the willow stakes. He and Jack drove them deeply in, and the girls jumped for joy to see what fine straight walls of willow the boys were making.
    The willow stakes were set a little way apart, and Jack showed the girls how to take thin, supple willow branches and weave them in and out of the stakes to hold the walls in place, and to fill up the gaps It was quite easy to do this when they knew how, but they got very hot.
    Mike went up and down to the spring a down times that morning to fetch water! They all drank pints of it, and were glad of its coldness. The sun was really very hot, though it was nice and shady in the green willow thicket.
    “It begins to look like a house now,” said Jack, pleased. “Look, this front gap here is where we shall have the door. We can make that later of long stakes interwoven with willow strips, and swing it on some sort of a hinge so that it opens and shuts. But we don’t need a door at present.”
    That day all the walls were finished, and the girls had gone a good way towards weaving the stakes together so that the walls stood firmly and looked nice and thick.
    “In the olden days people used to fill up the gaps with clay and let it dry hard,” said Jack. “But I don’t think there’s any clay on this island, so we must stuff up the cracks with dried bracken and heather. That will do nicely. And the willow stakes we have rammed into the ground will grow, and throw out leaves later on, making the wall thicker still.”
    “How do you mean - the stakes we have cut will grow?” asked Mike in surprise. “Sticks don’t grow, surely!”
    Jack grinned. “Willow sticks do!” he said. “You can cut a willow branch off the tree - strip it of all buds and leaves, and stick it in the ground, and you’ll find that, although it has no roots, and no shoots - it will put out both and grow into a willow-tree by itself! Willows are full of life, and you can’t stamp it out of them!”
    “Well - our house will be growing all the year round, then!” cried Nora. “How funny!”
    “I think it’s lovely!” said Peggy. “I like things to be as alive as that. I shall love to