26 The bungalow was vacant except for three ladies who had staked one room. George put his possessions and rice bags in a small room about 7 feet by 8 and from then on he had a job cut out to keep it to himself until his wife should arrive in camp. He managed to get it fastened up some way. I chose a room with regard to the south sea exposure and was very thankful later for the comparative coolness. There was not a stick of furniture in the bungalow and several of the rooms had been used for lavatories. There were two bathrooms, but the seats of the toilets were filthy and the water pipes were broken. There were no brooms, mops or cleaning implements of any kind, but there was a roof over our heads and boards under our feet. It was now getting dark and we managed to get a fire started outside on which we boiled water in a Klim tin and made some tea. Three police strolled up. They had been ousted from several places after cleaning them and asked if they might stay in the bungalow at least for the night. We were very glad of their company. As there were no lights of any sort, I was anxious to get the children settled before dark. Van Dyke was all right in his pram, but I had only been able to bring one blanket and one thin quilt. There were books and papers scattered about on the floor and walks and we used the papers to clean up a part of the floor and spread the blanket for Celene, Clyde and me. We had the thin quilt over us. I had foolishly left the fur coats with the other things to come with Mr. King and his helpers. The police scraped out the other end of the double room and the three of them slept there. The poor fellows had no food at all, and one of them had dug up some lily bulbs in the garden, thinking they were onions. He had even tried eating them. We had a piece of bread each given us that morning, so we were not so badly off and anyway extreme weariness made us not so hungry.
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