."

"Thet's true, sir, ef we _could_ move at oncet. But we can't--leastways
not to-day."

"Why not?"

"It's too nigh night; we wouldn't hev time to git to the outer shore,"
explained the carpenter.

"Why, there's an hour of daylight yet, or more!"

"Thet's cl'ar enough, Captin'. But ef thar were two hours o' daylight,
or twice thet, it wouldn't be enough."

"I don't understand you, Chips. The distance can't be more than two or
three hundred yards."

"Belike it aren't more. But for all that, it'll take us the half of a
day, ef not longer, to cover it."

"How so?" queried the skipper.

"Wal, the how is thet we can't go by the beach; thar bein' no beach. At
the mouth o' the cove it's all cliff, right down to the water. I
noticed thet as we war puttin' inter it. Not a strip o' strand at the
bottom broad enough fur a seal to bask on. We'll hev to track it up
over the hills, an' thet'll take no end o' time, an' plenty o' toilin',
too--ye'll see, Captin'."

"I suppose, then, we must wait for morning," is the skipper's rejoinder,
after becoming satisfied that no practicable path leads out of the cove
between land and water.

This constrains them to pass another night on the spot that has proved
so disastrous, and the morning after, to eat another meal upon it--the
last they intend tasting there. A meagre repast it is; but their
appetites are now on keen edge, all the keener from the supply of food
being stinted. For by one of nature's perverse contrarieties, men feel
hunger most when without the means of satisfying it, and most thirsty
when no water can be had. It is the old story of distant skies looking
brightest, and far-off fields showing greenest--the very difficulty of
obtaining a thing whetting the desire to possess it, as a child craves
some toy, that it soon ceases to care for when once in its possession.
No such philosophic reflections occupy the thoughts of the castaways.
All they think of, while at their scanty meal, is to get through with it
as speedily as possible, and away from the scene of their disaster.

The breakfast over, the tent is taken down, the boat-sail folded into
the most portable form, with mast, oars, and everything made ready for
overland transport. They have even apportioned the bundles, and are
about to begin the uphill climb, when, lo! the _Fuegians_!

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Note 1. There is now a colony in the St