ur barrel would be
empty.

But this was a part of the ups and downs of their life, and one and all
they accepted the condition cheerfully, for who, they said, does not
have to endure privations now and again? And they had always done very
well in other years, and the needs of life are small; and so they had no
complaint to make. Comfort and privation are, after all, measured
largely by contrast, and what to them would have been comfortable and
luxurious living would have seemed to you and me little less than
unendurable hardship.

Bobby and Jimmy were as glad, now, to return to the snug cabins as they
had been to set out for Itigailit Island in the summer, and as they
looked back over the few short weeks, the July day when they had their
adventure with the bear seemed to them a long, long while ago.

And when the boats were loaded Bobby ran up to say good-bye for a
season to the cairn and the dead man mouldering beneath it, and to the
wide open sea, and the misty horizon out of which he had drifted, and
then they hoisted sail and were off.

Another long winter with its bitter cold and drifting snow, its joys and
its hardships and adventures, was at hand.

CHAPTER XV

MAROONED IN AN ARCTIC BLIZZARD

That was indeed a winter of bitter cold and of almost unexampled
severity. It came suddenly, too, and with scant warning, as we shall
see, and a full fortnight in advance of the time when it should have
come.

Abel and Skipper Ed took Jimmy with them that year upon their autumn
seal hunt. It was deemed wise to leave Bobby behind with Mrs. Abel,
despite his protest. Though he was willing enough to remain when Mrs.
Abel declared that because of her recent illness she wished some one to
stay at home and assist her, for she did not feel equal to the task,
unassisted, of making things snug for the winter. And of course there
was none but Bobby to stay.

And so it came about that Bobby, with many longings and regrets, though
cheerful enough withal, stood down on the beach one frosty September
morning and watched Abel Zachariah and Skipper Ed and Jimmy sail away
for the hunt, while he comforted himself with the thought that another
year he, too, would go.

Indeed, he had already taken part in the spring hunt, and though he gave
no hint that he had guessed what was in their minds, he knew well enough
that the plea that he was needed at home to assist Mrs. Abel at the work
was a subterfuge of his foster parents,