essary rest:-- they were completely worn-out with all
they had gone through since the previous morning, for the anxious night
had passed by and it was broad daylight again before they reached shore.

Not a particle of the boat or anything that had been in her was ever
washed up by the sea; consequently, they had to deplore the loss, not
only of the little craft itself, the sole means they had of ever leaving
the bay, but also of the carcase of the goat they were conveying home to
supply them with fresh meat, as a change from their generally salt diet.
The sea, too, had taken from them their last haul of sealskins, which
had cost them more pains to procure than the much larger lot they had
pitched down from the plateau, and which fortunately were safe.

Nor was this the worst.

Their two rifles and the fowling piece--which Fritz had taken with him,
as usual, in his last hunting expedition, for the benefit of the island
hen and other small birds--as well as the harpoons, and many other
articles, whose loss they would feel keenly, were irrevocably gone!

But, on the other side of the account, as the brother crusoes devoutly
remembered, they had saved their lives--a set-off against far greater
evils than the destruction of all their implements and weapons!

The first week or two of their return from this ill-fated expedition,
Fritz and Eric had plenty to do in preparing the bundles of sealskins
they had secured in their first foray, and which they found safe enough
at the bottom of the gully where they had cast them down from above;
although they little thought then of the peril they would subsequently
undergo and the narrow chance of their ever wanting to make use of the
pelts.

Still, there the skins were, and there being no reason why they should
not now attend to them, they set to work in the old fashion of the
previous year, scraping and drying and then salting them down in some
fresh puncheons Captain Fuller of the _Jane_ had supplied them with, as
well as a quantity of barrels to contain their oil, in exchange for the
full ones he had taken on board.

After the skins were prepared, the blubber had to be "tried out" in the
cauldron, with all the adjuncts of its oily smoke and fishy smell,
spoiling everything within reach; and, when this was done, there was the
garden to attend to, their early potatoes having to be dug up and
vegetables gathered, besides the rest of the land having to be put in
order.

They ha