Monkey and Pirates
In the morning he wakened as suddenly as he had fallen asleep. He sat up among the leaves and saw the Good Wolf looking at him.
"What is it?" he said. "I am thinking of it again. I must find out what it is."
"Come along and get your bath in the pool," said the Good Wolf, cheerfully, "you shall know then."
The morning was brighter and the sea and the sky even bluer than they had been the day before. The slope was like green velvet and the pool in the rocks as clear as green crystal. Barty splashed and clashed and swam about almost like a fish. But he could not help saying to himself, "What is it? What is it? I wonder what it is?"
When he had finished his bath and put on his clothes, he said it to the Good Wolf who was standing and looking at him as he had looked when he awoke.
"What is it? What is it?" he said. "Ifeel as if I were just going to remember."
The Good Wolf began to sniff the air gently.
"Is there any mignonette growing about here?" he said.
Barty gave a little sniff, too, and then a little jump. There was the scent of mignonette in the air and the last time he had smelt it had been when the Good Wolf had carried him away.
"It's my mother—my mother I was thinking of!" he cried out. "Whycouldn't I remember. She'll be wondering where I am. I must go home this minute."
"There," said the Good Wolf. "All right. We will go home. The reason you could not remember was because I made you forget on purpose. If I had not done that you would have been wondering all the time whether you were not too far away and if she was looking for you, and you would not have enjoyed the Desert Island at all. I made her forget, too, so that she has not even missed you. She thinks you have only been playing in the woods afew hours. Has it been nicer than Robinson Crusoe?"
"Yes, yes!" cried Barty.
"Get on my back and shut your eyes," said the Good Wolf.
"I don't want to shut my eyes until I have looked round at the Desert Island again," said Barty. "It is a lovely Desert Island. Could Saturday and Blue Crest come with us?"
He said that because Saturday had come running up and Blue Crest was perched on a rock.
"They can if you like," said the GoodWolf, "but I think you had better leave them here. You will want them when you come back."
"Can I come back?" Barty shouted joyfully.
"Yes—whenever you ask me to bring you. This Desert Island will always be here. Jump upon my back quickly. Your mother is just beginning to remember you."
Barty jumped up, waving his hand to Saturday and Blue Crest.
"I'm coming back, I'm coming back," he said.
Then he laid his cheek on the GoodWolf's fur and clasped his arms round his neck and shut his eyes, and then he was fast asleep again.
Searching
When he wakened up he was standing in his own cottage garden, and he went into the cottage and his mother looked up from watering her flowers and smiled at him.
"I was just beginning to wonder where you were," she said. "What rosy cheeks you have. You do look as if you had been enjoying yourself."
And that is the end ofthisstory
Campfire