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Rabbit Island.
Rabbit Island.
One of the stupidest things that I have ever done, yes this must have been the culmination of a misspent childhood. Like most of the other children the local river fascinated me. It was after the last heavy storm. Planks of wood were floating down the river. I was alone the other kids were at school I was playing truant once again. Plank after plank I stacked in neat piles along the riverbank. At the back of my mind I thought that the owner of the Saw Mills wood give me a reward for saving all of this timber.
No such luck, the losses were covered by insurance. What to do with the planks of wood then the idea of a raft came into my head. All by myself I laid out a row of planks then tied them together with some rope that I also had fished out of the river, Layer upon layer all tied together until I had a really solid raft. It took much effort on my part to get that heavy silly old raft into the water. I managed it at last. I jumped onto the raft and the current of the stream caused the raft to go faster and faster. To say that I was frightened would have been telling a lie. I was happy this was a real adventure. Sometimes the raft hit a stone that was sticking up out of the water. This made it all the more exciting. I was in my glory sailing that raft. I could not say why but floating that raft was really the best thing that had ever happened to me. For the first time in my life no Adults to tell me what to do. No other kids wanting to do something else. There was only one snag to my exciting journey. I had forgotten to take drinks or food with me and by the look of things this raft was going out to sea.
Some People shouted to me but the noise of the water blocked all that they said. To be honest I was enjoying myself and did not want to hear what the grown ups were shouting. This was my adventure and I was not going to have some strangers spoiling it for me. Then when it came the raft hitting something I was upset who had placed something in the way of my raft. Yes it was now my raft. I had built it all on my own. I had pushed it into the river so in my reckoning it was now my raft.
The raft was stuck or better had buried the front part in some soft ground. It was firmly wedged. I alone would never be able to get this raft back into the river no matter what I tried. I walked on to the land, now I was going to explore this land and see what it had to offer me, I needed food and something to drink I slowly walked inland keeping my eyes open for anything interesting. I was still hoping that I could get the raft back into the river and carry on my journey. The last thing I expected to see was this stupid notice board. Written in Block Capital Letters were the words Rabbit Island. Under it was written, Trespassers will be prosecuted. Now I thought, Rabbit Island there must be many rabbits living here to give it such a name. A quick look in my pockets yes I had a matchbox with a few matches. All I had to do now was to light a fire and catch a rabbit that will be a good meal for a hungry young boy. I soon found out that catching rabbits was not as easy as I thought it would be. Rabbits hop and hop and are very fast on their four legs, faster than me on my two legs.
Suddenly I heard a low whistle on turning I saw a boy about the same age as myself. He called softly hide yourself my Father is here with a shotgun. He always takes a shotgun with him when he comes to Rabbit Island. If he sees you he will shoot at you so hide as quickly as you can. I thought it would be best to take notice of what the boy had said and I hid myself in a thick clump of bushes, pushing my way right to the middle of the bushes. No one can see me here in the middle of the bushes. Suddenly a shot sounded I pushed myself deeper into the bush. Two men came past the bush. On seeing what was left of my raft they cut the rope that held the raft together and carried all of the planks onto the Island. I distinctly heard the man with the shotgun saying that the wood would make a good place to shelter under when it rained on Rabbit Island. Keeping a sharp watch on the two men I waited until they had rescued all of the wooden planks and walked away from the Island. I waited for a while then it was my turn to leave my hiding place. I went straight to the pile of wooden planks and one by one I threw all of the planks back into the river. No one with a shotgun was going to get my planks I had, had the pleasure of rafting down the river and if the man with the shotgun had not come who knows perhaps I could have got the raft to float again and carried on down to the sea. I never did see the boy again that had warned me about his father and his wanting to use his shotgun on his island or Rabbit Island as he himself had called it. I am sorry to say that I never did get to thank that little boy of so long ago. Perhaps he will read this story and it will all come back to him so here goes thank you stranger for your timely warning from Bern.
