THEY all scrambled down from the cart and looked at each other in dismay. “Whatever shall we do now?” said the Ancient Mariner. “I’ve never had such a thing happen to me before.”
“Explore the island,” said Girlie promptly. “People always do that the first thing when they get cast on a desolate island.” You see she had read so many of her brothers’ books about shipwrecks and adventures of that kind that she knew exactly what to do. “Then we must build a hut,” she went on (thinking of Robinson Crusoe), “and stop here till some passing ship sees our signals of distress and rescues us. 160Oh! it will be lovely!” and Girlie danced about delightedly. The others did not seem to be half so pleased about it as she did, and the Wallypug remarked dejectedly that he “didn’t see what they should do for food.”
“Oh! you and the Ancient Mariner will have to go out shooting game and things, and catch fishes and turtles,” said Girlie, “and we will stop at home and cook them and keep the house tidy; that’s the way people do in books.”
“But we haven’t any guns to shoot with,” objected the Ancient Mariner.
This was rather puzzling, and Girlie had to think some time before replying; at last, however, she said decidedly, “Oh, I know; of course there will be a chest washed ashore presently, with all kinds of tools and guns in it, and another one with ship’s biscuits and tinned meats; that is what always happens in the story books. I expect we shall find them here when we’ve done exploring the island. Come along.” And Girlie led the way through the bushes and trees, which grew so close together that they had some difficulty in getting along, especially the Bathing-machine Woman, who, as you will remember, was rather stout. At last, however, they came to an opening 161and could see a sandy desert stretching before them apparently for miles, for they could only just catch a faint glimpse of the sea sparkling in the sunlight on the further side of the island.
“Well, this is a rum-looking place to come to,” said the Ancient Mariner as he viewed the scene.
“H’m! there don’t seem to be many shops about,” said the Bathing-machine Woman, “and I hate a place without shops, it’s so dull. I don’t think I shall stop here,” she said (though she didn’t say how she was going to get away).
“I wonder what that thing over there is?” said Girlie, shading her eyes and looking at what seemed to be a very curiously-shaped rock about half a mile away.
“Let’s go and see, your Majesty,” suggested the Wallypug.
This seemed to be the only thing to do, so they all set out through the sand, which was most uncomfortable for walking in. On drawing nearer to it, they could see that the curiously-shaped rock was really a Sphinx carved out of stone. To Girlie’s great surprise, the Crow, to whom she had lent her pocket-handkerchief, was perched up beside it reading a newspaper, stuck up in front of him.
162“Well, I never, if it isn’t the Pig,” he said, turning his head and staring at her through his spectacles, “and the Wallypug, I do declare. Why, I’ve just been reading about you both in The Daily Whyer; look here,” and he held out the paper for them to see.
 
“PERCHED UP BESIDE IT READING A NEWSPAPER.”
Girlie took it from him and read in large letters, “Mysterious disappearance of the Wallypug and the Human Noun, last seen making mud pies on the sea shore.”
“We weren’t!” cried Girlie indignantly. “It was a sand castle we were building.”
163“Well, it’s a very interesting account, anyhow,” replied the Crow; “and you can’t expect newspaper accounts always to be quite correct, you know, can you? I was just reading it aloud to the Sphinx.”
“What was the use of that?” asked Girlie; “it can’t hear you.”
“Oh! can’t it, though,” said the Crow; “that’s all you know about it. It can hear better than you can, I’ll be bound; can’t you, old chap?” he said, speaking to the Sphinx.
The Sphinx did not reply, of course, but it seemed to Girlie that it smiled in a very knowing way.
“It doesn’t say much but it thinks a good deal, I can tell you,” the Crow went on. “It hasn’t lived all these four thousand years for nothing.”
“Good gracious! is it so old as that?” cried Girlie, while the others stared at it in amazement, the Bathing-machine Woman exclaiming with surprise,—
“Law! bless me, who’d have thought it, now?”
“Has it lived here all that time?” asked the Ancient Mariner after a pause.
“Yes,” replied the Crow, “of course; what a stupid question.”
“I don’t believe it, then,” said the Ancient Mariner defiantly. “What has it lived on?”
164“Sandwiches,” replied the Crow; “it’s the only thing you can get here.”
“Sandwiches!” exclaimed Girlie, looking about; “why whatever do they make them of?”
“Sand, of course,” said the Crow contemptuously. “Any donkey knows that; that’s why they are called sandwiches.”
“O’ugh! how horrid!” said Girlie. “I should think they must be very nasty.”
“I’ve had occasion before to remark that you are very peculiar in your tastes,” said the Crow sarcastically. “They’ve been having a rare lark at Why since you’ve been away,” he continued, addressing himself to the Wallypug.
“What have they been doing, your Majesty?” asked the Wallypug anxiously.
“Well, you’re supposed to be dead, to begin with,” replied the Crow, “and the Cockatoo has headed a Revolution, and has got herself proclaimed Protectress, and oh! there’s rare goings on, I can tell you.”
“Oh dear! oh dear! I do wish I could get back. I know what that old Cockatoo is,” said the poor Wallypug anxiously; “she will upset everything and everybody. Can’t you suggest something, your Majesty?” he cried, 165turning to Girlie; but Girlie did not know what to advise.
While they had been talking, the Bathing-machine Woman and the Ancient Mariner had gone a little way off on an exploring expedition on their own account (the Bathing-machine Woman having first made a comfortable bed with her shawl for the baby, between the feet of the Sphinx, where it lay sleeping peacefully, with its little thumb stuck in its mouth). Girlie could see them in the distance, and presently the Ancient Mariner shouted and beckoned to them excitedly.
 
“‘WHAT’S THAT?’ HE ASKED, POINTING IN THE AIR.”
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing in the air when they hurried up to him.
They could just discern a little black speck ever and ever so far away.
“I suppose it couldn’t be a plum pudding, could it, your Majesty?” suggested the Wallypug meekly.
“Nonsense,” cried Girlie, “whoever heard of a plum pudding sailing about in the air. No! it’s a balloon,” she decided, after looking at it for some time............