The Island House

have," replied his old nurse. "Dear boy, you must be hungry. I suppose the girls have something left?"

"Oh yes, quite enough for another meal, I should think! I wish we could let them know we are safe, and not so very far away."

"Burn a light; I have some matches and a little spirit lamp. I bought it with some other things yesterday, thinking it might be handy in the summer, when the kitchen fire was out, to boil a little water."

"Oh, what fun!" cried Alfy. "We are just like wrecked sailors or something, near a desert island! We'll burn some of the papers round the parcels to make a great flare."

So the lamp was lit, and the papers burned, and Alfy waved the flimsy, flaming torch bravely for a minute or so, that the watchers in the island house might just catch a glimpse of them and of their position.

An answering light was soon flashed back by the girls, so they knew that their own had been seen.

"Now we will take some of this tongue," said Mansy, producing the tin i