8 Three Young Crusoe s 



he and Henry went to examine the "poles." They 

 proved to be the trunks of cocoanut trees almost de- 

 stroyed by fire. The beautiful, feathery leaves at 

 the top had been entirely destroyed and the thick, 

 fibrous husks on the ripe nuts had been burned away, 

 but the unripe nuts, in their heavy green rinds, had 

 hardly been touched. Henry had read of drinking 

 the milk of a half-ripe cocoanut instead of water, so 

 he and William got busy at once with their knives, 

 whittling away at the small end to get at the hollow 

 inside where the milk was. 



"Want a drink of water, Edna.^" She jumped up 

 and came running, although she feared the boys were 

 only teasing her. It proved to be excellent; a little 

 sweetish and unusual, but very good and surprisingly 

 cool. She drank until she could drink no more, 

 while the boys watched her with pleasure. Wil- 

 liam was especially pleased because he had found the 

 trees. After they got all the water they wanted, 

 the boys broke open some ot the ripe nuts by throw- 

 ing them against the rocks and cut out a lot of the 

 meat, which thev munched as thev continued their 

 journey. When they came back that way, they 

 planned to carry all the nuts they could to the big 

 rock where thev had left the hardtack and water. 



