At the next meeting, we are discussing that there will be rules, such as, "If someone has the conch, they have the right to speak." Then a little boy spoke of a beastie. Piggy had to talk for him, since he was a little shy.

He says that the beastie lived in the woods, and it looked like a snake. Ralph put it off, saying, "You can't get beasties on islands this size. You only get them in big countries, like Africa and India."

The little boy goes on about the beastie, saying that it came in the dark. To this, Ralph said that he must've been dreaming about the creepers. He looks to the older boys for confirmation, but you can tell in the eyes of some of the little un's that they do not believe what Ralph is saying. But we all know about nightmares.

"He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight?" Piggy says, looking to Ralph for reassurance.

"There isn't a beastie!" Ralph tried to get everyone calmed down; they're starting to fidget.

"He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the tree, and hung in the branches. He says will it come back tonight?"

"But there isn't a beastie!" Ralph repeats, hoping repetition will knock this crazy idea out of the little un's heads.

This is when Merridew takes his chance to put in his comments.

"Ralph is right, of course. There isn't a snake thing. But if there is a snake, we'd hunt it and kill it. We're going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody. And we'll look for the snake too— ."

"But there isn't a snake!"

"We'll make sure when we go hunting."

Ralph is starting to look annoyed now. And defeated. But soon after, he told us (again) that there wasn't a beastie and we shouldn't be afraid. Ralph then changes the topic, to our rescue.

We all start talking at once. The simple statement sent us into a frenzy. Without any back up. This is the first that Ralph has ever been in charge of something, but I think, since we've just been through something as dramatic as a plane crash, none of us are really thinking about background checks.

"My father is in the Navy. He said there aren't any unknown islands left. He says the Queen had a big room full of maps and all the islands in the world are drawn there. So the Queen's got a picture of our island." We are all wondering if this or true or not.

"And sooner or later, a ship will be put here. It might even be Daddy's ship. So you see," he said proudly, "sooner or later, we shall be rescued." The safety in his words left us stupefied. Then, after a few moments, we all broke into applause. Ralph flushed and Piggy looked to him, admiring his words. And Merridew… He was smirking and showing that he, too, knew how to clap. But Ralph still had the conch.

"There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island, they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire!"

"A fire!" all the boys started cheering, they were excited for the fire. Half of the boys are on their feet. Jack was among them, and the conch had been forgotten

Under the palm trees, it was full of noise. Ralph had stood up, not to head up the mountain, but to regain control. But none of the boys had heard him. The group was following Merridew. Ralph was left, holding the conch. No one was around but Piggy, Ralph, and I.

"Little kids. . . Acting like a group of little kids," Piggy said, under his breath. I agreed with him on that. Ralph looked at him doubtfully and laid down the conch on a tree trunk. Then Ralph took off running. Piggy and I looked after in in disgust. "Like a crowd of kids—" Piggy and I caught eyes, I nodded, then we followed.

On the other side of the island, there was a forest. Ralph made a gesture. "Down there we could get as much wood as we want."

The trees were dead, not being able to find enough soil to grow upon. The trees fell prematurely and decayed. They had left saplings, which would also start the struggle to grow.

The boys had gathers a lot of firewood, and put in into a pile. They had then used Piggy's glasses as a way to light the wood on fire. Once the pile was on fire, Ralph had gotten the boys to go get even more wood. They did, and they were all panting like tired dogs within a quarter of an hour.

There wasn't any smoke, only flame. This had gotten us a little sad. We came to the conclusion to let it burn out. Who could see smoke at night, anyway? Merridew and his hunters volunteered to watch the flame. But then, Piggy looked over his shoulder at the forest of dead wood below. It had caught on fire.

"You got your small fire all right."

But it wasn't a small fire. It was a big one. One that had caught all of our fire wood on fire. The flames crept along the forest as if they were some type of big cat that I had seen in the zoo. At this point, I would like to admit that I think that Piggy would be a much better leader than Ralph.

There was much arguing, Merridew called Piggy "Fatty" again. I am enraged, but I say nothing.

Piggy loses his temper. "I got the conch! Just you listen! The first thing we ought to have made was shelters done there by the beach. It wasn't half cold down there in the night. But the first time Ralph says 'fire' you go screaming and howling up this here mountain. Like a pack of kids!" He hesitates, then continues with, "How do you expect to rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?"

Piggy makes a motion to put down the conch, but changes his mind. "And who knows how many little un's we got?"

Ralph broke in, "I told you to collect names."

Piggy retorts, "It's kind of hard when I'm all alone."

But he wasn't alone. The hunters were there and so was I. Then I took notice. We were missing a little un. The one with the birthmark on his face.

"Where's the little un with the mark on his face?" I say, startling everyone. It was the first time I had spoke since we landed on the island.

Piggy continues on my idea. "That little un, the one with the mark on his face— where is— he now? I tell you, I don't see him."

The boys look at each other, unbelieving that the little un is gone.

"— where is he now?" Piggy and I say together. We looks at each other and he smiled.

"Perhaps he went back down to the, the—"

Beneath them, on the unfriendly side of the mountain, the drumroll of fire continued.