, ripping off the old roping and
replacing it with new, and generally putting each sail into perfectly
good and reliable condition. There was not so much of this kind of work
to be done as I had feared; so it and the building of the warehouse came
to an end together.

Then followed the discharging of the cargo, which was conveyed to the
shore in boats, carried up from the beach on men's shoulders, or, in the
case of the heavier packages, on hand barrows; a few there were so heavy
that they had to be removed from the beach on rollers, but they were not
many; and when the ship's hold was empty, and the whole of its contents
transferred to the warehouse, there ensued a general overhaul of
everything, and a detailed inventory was taken, showing precisely what
articles and materials, and in what quantity, were at the disposal of
the community.

The ship being empty, I seized the opportunity to careen her, examine
her sheathing, go over it with mallets where it had become wrinkled with
the straining of the hull, stripping off the worst of it and replacing
it with new, so far as our resources would allow; removed all weed and
barnacles, and re-caulked her seams where necessary. The next job was
to smoke her for rats, with which she was overrun, and remove their
carcasses; then we repainted her, inside and out, having plenty of paint
for the purpose; after which we ballasted her with sand, putting a
sufficient quantity into her to make her tolerably weatherly. Finally
we gave her spars and rigging a thorough overhaul, fitting to her a new
main topmast, the old one proving to be slightly sprung, and rove a
considerable quantity of new running gear. The lower masts, bowsprit,
mastheads, and yards were next repainted, the bright spars thoroughly
scraped and revarnished, the standing rigging tarred down; and, last of
all, the sails were rebent, and the old _Mercury_ was once more ready to
go to sea at practically a moment's notice.

All this work, with the small gang of men at my disposal, occupied the
best part of six months in the doing. Meanwhile the remainder of the
community had not been altogether idle, although it had already become
apparent that there was a fairly liberal sprinkling of drones among
them, and there was a steadily growing discontent among the more
industriously disposed because of this, and because, also, Wilde's
doctrines provided no means whereby the lazy ones could be compelled to
do their fair sha