fing at everything that came in their
way, and trying in vain to root wherever one of them could insert his
nose. As a hog is a particularly sagacious animal, Mark kept his eyes on
them while Bob was picking out his guano, in the faint hope that they
might discover fresh water, by means of their instinct. In this way he
saw them enter the gate way of the crater, pigs being pretty certain to
run their noses into any such place as that.

On landing, Mark took a part of the tools and the bucket of guano, while
Bob shouldered the remainder, and they went up to the hole, and entered
the crater together, having landed as near to the gate-way as they could
get, with that object. To Mark's great delight he found that the pigs
were now actually rooting with some success, so far as stirring the
surface was concerned, though getting absolutely nothing for their
pains. There were spots on the plain of the crater, however, where it
was possible, by breaking a sort of crust, to get down into coarse ashes
that were not entirely without some of the essentials of soil. Exposure
to the air and water, with mixing up with sea-weed and such other waste
materials as he could collect, the young man fancied would enable him to
obtain a sufficiency of earthy substances to sustain the growth of
plants. While on the summit of the crater-wall, he had seen two or three
places where it had struck him sweet-potatoes and beans might be made to
grow, and he determined to ascend to those spots, and make his essay
there, as being the most removed from the inroads of the pigs. Could he
only succeed in obtaining two or three hundred melons, he felt that a
great deal would be done in providing the means of checking any
disposition to scurvy that might appear in Bob or himself. In this
thoughtful manner did one so young look ahead, and make provision for
the future.

Chapter VI.

"----that done, partake
The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs;
Then commune how that day they best may ply
Their growing work; for much their work outgrew
The hands dispatch of two gard'ning so wide."

Milton.

Our two mariners had come ashore well provided with the means of
carrying out their plans. The Rancocus was far better provided with
tools suited to the uses of the land, than was common for ships, her
voyage contemplating a long stay among the islands she was to visit.
Thus, axes and picks were not wanting,