while the little ones were still playing with the clown, the elephant, and the donkey, mary and tom went about beech house looking at other things.
“what a queer flag!” cried mary suddenly. “it is not a bit like the stars and stripes.” she was pointing to something tied to a stick which stood against the tree-trunk. it was a flag of black silk, and on it was painted a skull with two bones crossed below it.
“why, don’t you know?” said kenneth, “that is a pirate flag. we always use it whenever we play pirates.”
“what are pirates?” asked mary.
“oh, pirates are sea-robbers,” explained kenneth. “they used to sail all around the[37] world in fast ships, and they captured other sailors and killed them. then they took their treasures and buried them in places where no one else could find them. papa says that perhaps they hid some of their treasure down here in maine. did you ever find any pirate gold, tom?”
“no,” said tom. “but i never looked for any. perhaps if i had known i might have found it. i’ll hunt for it some day.”
“we’ll all hunt for it!” said kenneth.
“we played ‘buried treasure’ last summer,” said rose. “aunt clare showed me how. it is a very good game for a sandy beach, and i found ten cents.”
“oh!” cried susan prout eagerly. ten cents seemed to her a great deal of money.
“pooh!” said kenneth. “that was a silly game. we will go and find real treasure,—gold and jewels and things like that. and we will be rich as anything.”
“hurrah!” shouted tom. bill and bob echoed, “hurrah!”
[38]“first we’ll form a pirate band,” went on kenneth. “now there are so many of us it will be jolly to play pirate. i’ll be bloody dick. tom, you can be slippery joe. we will think up names for all the little ones,—and for the girls, too. the girls will have to play so that we can have a good big band.”
“of course we shall play!” said rose stoutly. “we shall be the best pirates of all, shan’t we, mary?”
and mary said, “perhaps, when we know how.”
“i say, tom, you know where the pirate cave is, don’t you?” asked kenneth.
“you mean the cave down by black rock?” asked tom. “we don’t call it that, though. we call it just ‘the oven.’”
“pirate cave is a much better name,” said kenneth. “well, mama says that we can have a picnic there some day. we children will all be pirates, and the cave is our den. papa and mama and the baby will be just ordinary sailors with a treasure,—that’s the[39] luncheon, of course. and we will capture them and take them to the cave. then we will have the picnic. won’t that be fine?”
“fine!” cried tom. “that will be a great game.”
“we must all have black masks like this,” said kenneth; and he clapped to his face a bit of black cloth with two holes, through which his eyes glowed fiercely.
the littlest prouts began to scream. “stop that!” said tom. “if you are going to bawl you can’t be pirates. you will have to go with the luncheon and be robbed.”
bill and bob and jane were silent immediately. they felt that it would be terrible not to be pirates.
“yes, we must all have masks and swords, and red handkerchiefs tied around our necks, and turbans, just like real pirates,” said kenneth. “see, i have a tin sword.”
“i think i can make the masks,” said mary, who had been examining kenneth’s. “i can sew a little, can’t you, rose?”
[40]“oh, yes,” said rose, thinking of the dolls’ dresses which she had made. “i can sew a great deal.”
“and i can whittle,” said tommy prout. “i will make wooden swords for all of us.”
“so can i,” said kenneth. “i have a jolly jack-knife—a real pirate ripper!” and he flourished it in the air.
“who will be captain?” said rose suddenly. “i suppose there has to be a captain?”
“oh, yes,” said kenneth. “of course there must be a captain, to tell everybody what to do.”
“you be captain, kenneth,” said rose, who admired her brother more than anything in the world. kenneth brandished his sword and cried “ho!” ferociously, as though he were indeed a pirate chief.
“tommy is the biggest,” said susan jealously.
“yes, tommy’s the biggest,” echoed bill and bob.
“well, i know the island pretty well,” said[41] tom. “i can sail a boat, too. i guess i’ll make a good pirate, though i never played the game before.”
“but the captain ought to know all about it,” said kenneth uneasily. “you know you had never heard about pirates until i told you.”
“well, i know now,” said tommy, flushing; “so what’s the difference? do you want to be everything?”
“no, i don’t!” retorted kenneth. “yesterday i let you be the indian chief.”
“yes, but you were hawkeye, the famous hunter. that was just as good, wasn’t it?” answered tom.
“well, if any one else is the pirate chief, i shall not let him wear my sword,” declared kenneth.
“stingy!” said susan.
“i’ll whittle a better one!” tom cried triumphantly.
“i’m going home,” said susan. “i shan’t play unless tom is the chief.”
[42]“go along, then!” said rose, pouting.
little jane began to cry. bill and bob doubled up their fists and looked very fierce.
“oh, don’t let us quarrel!” said mary, in distress. and, indeed, it looked as though there was to be trouble in beech house.
“let’s go home, mary,” said tom sullenly. “we aren’t wanted here any longer.”
kenneth stood with arms folded, kicking the grass sulkily. suddenly there came a tremendous blow on the horn,—so loud that everybody jumped, and rose whispered in blood-curdling tones the awful word “pirates!” but kenneth soon remembered who he was, and that robinson crusoe was never afraid of anything, not even of cannibals.
“what ho!” he called bravely. “what stranger seeks entrance to my house?” and he strode to the door brandishing his sword. suddenly he gave a whoop of joy.
“charlie!” he cried. “charlie carroll! where did you come from?”
“it’s a surprise!” said another voice, and[43] in came kenneth with a boy of about the same age, who was grinning all over his jolly freckled face. rose flew at him rapturously.
“cousin charlie!” she squealed. “oh, how nice!”
“hello, rose!” the boy said. “having a party?”
“they are the little prouts,” whispered rose. “you remember, we told you about them.”
“he is my cousin, charlie carroll,” explained kenneth to the prout children. “i say, charlie, why didn’t you tell us you were coming? are you going to stay?”
“yes, i have come to stay four weeks,” said charlie. “aunt mollie asked me, and it was to be a secret.”
“oh, goodie, goodie!” cried rose, hopping up and down. “what fine times we shall have now!”
“i came up on the boat last night with aunt clare,” said charlie. “uncle jack met us at the wharf this morning, and when aunt[44] mollie said you kids were all down here i ran away and came as softly as i could so as to surprise you.”
“aunt clare here, too! oh, what fun!” cried rose.
“you came just in time to be a pirate,” said kenneth.
“oh, yes! you will be a pirate too, won’t you, charlie?” said rose, clapping her hands.
“pirates!” cried charlie. “that sounds fine. i’ll be bulldog bill.”
“hurrah!” cheered kenneth. “we are to have swords and masks, charlie, and capture a treasure and live in a cave.”
“but we haven’t chosen a captain yet,” said rose. “kenneth and tom both want to be captain, and we nearly quarreled about it before you came.”
the children suddenly looked very much ashamed. “i don’t want to be captain, tom,” said kenneth. “you’ll do it better. here, you can have my sword.”
“no,” said tom, “i won’t take it. you[45] be captain. you know all about the game and i don’t.”
then mary prout had a great idea. “you be pirate chief,” she said, turning to charlie. “that will settle the trouble.”
“oh, yes, that is a good idea!” cried rose. “we will all do as you say, charlie.”
“oh, i have just come,” said charlie. “i don’t want to be chief the very first thing.”
“i’ll agree,” said kenneth. “what do you say, tom?”
“all right,” assented tom. “i don’t care. he’ll make a good pirate, i guess.”
“of course he will!” cried rose promptly. “charlie is great fun.”
“well, i’ll tell you,” said charlie modestly. “i’ll be captain first, so as to settle things easily. but after that we’ll take turns. now let’s plan what we will do first.”
“all right!” they cried in chorus. then they sat down on the grass and told charlie about the adventure which they had planned before he came. and the new captain said it[46] was a very good plan indeed, and that they would carry it out at the first chance.
so the tea-party ended happily after all, and a mutiny among the pirate band was averted.
