accessible Island, and which Fritz
has invested in the concern in their joint names, is amply sufficient to
make him a co-proprietor instead of occupying a subordinate position.

And Eric?

Well, the lad is doing well enough.

He went back to Providence at the end of the following summer, as he had
promised; and, having joined the _Pilot's Bride_, and sailed in her
since, he is now first officer of that staunch old ship--which the fates
will that our old friend the Yankee skipper shall still command.

The last news from Rhode Island, however, records a rumour anent a
"splice," to use the nautical phrase, between Master Eric and Miss Celia
Brown; and report has it that when this matrimonial engagement is
effected "the old man" has announced his intention of giving over his
dearly beloved vessel to the entire charge of his son-in-law.

Still, this has not happened yet--Master Eric being yet too young for
such honours.

Lorischen and Burgher Jans, strange to say, did not make a match of it
after all, the fickle-minded old nurse backing out of the bargain
instead of holding to her promise after the arrival of her young masters
at home.

Gelert is yet to the fore, and as good and brave an old dog as ever,
albeit time has robbed him of some of his teeth and made him somewhat
less active; but as for Mouser, he does not seem to have "turned a
hair." The highly intelligent animal still purrs and fizzes as
vigourously as in his youth--occupying his leisure moments, when not
after birds or mice, in basking in the sunshine on the window-ledge
above the staircase in summer; while, in winter, he curls himself up
between Gelert's outstretched paws on the hearthrug, in front of the
old-fashioned china stove.

The brothers must have the last word; and, here a little sermon must
come in.

Do you know, if you should ask them their candid opinion, they would
tell you that, although the idea of playing at Robinson Crusoe may seem
pleasant enough to those whose only experience of life on a desert
island is derived from what they have read about its romantic features
in books, persons, like themselves, who know what the real thing is,
could narrate a very different story concerning its haps and mishaps,
its deadly monotony and dreary solitude, its hopes and its despair!

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fritz and Eric, by John Conroy Hutcheson

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRITZ AND ERIC ***