two o'clock until four
The sea was calm and the sky cloudless . Any change in the weather was as unexpected as it is in books . Suddenly a West Indian Hurricane , purely local in character and unfelt anywhere else , struck Master Hickory and threw him overboard , whence , wildly swimming for his life and carrying Polly on his back , he eventually reached a Desert Island in the closet . Here the rescued party put up a tent made of a table cloth providentially snatched from the raging billows , and from two o'clock until four , passed six weeks on the island supported only by a piece of candle , a box of matches , and two peppermint lozenges . It was at this time that it became necessary to account for Polly 's existence among them , and this was only effected by an alarming sacrifice of their morality ; Hickory and Wan Lee instantly became _ Pirates _ , and at once elected Polly as their Queen . The royal duties , which seemed to be purely maternal , consisted in putting the Pirates to bed after a day of rapine and bloodshed , and in feeding them with liquorice water through a quill in a small bottle . Limited as her functions were , Polly performed them with inimitable gravity and unquestioned sincerity .