I woke up thinking that today would be a really good day. I thought that all of the kids would help with the hunting and the building of the shelter. Instead they all went off and played in the water. I ended up doing all of the building of the houses and Jack and Simon did the hunting. Jack and Simon came back from their hunt with nothing to show for but their bare hands and were very contrite. All Jack could think of was the pig that got away. He was rapt about catching the pig. I told him not to worry about the pig because we need to finish the shelter. He just kept on making a soft susurration to himself. I turned around to see what the others were doing and saw Piggy laying on the ground. He was starring at his reflection in the water. The others were bathing and playing in the water.

Jack and I were talking about if we blew the shell it would get the kids attention and they would come over to us. We knew if they did come over they would not be able to resist the compulsion to play and would only work for a little while. We felt like it wasn’t worth the vicissitudes to get them to work.