tle with a large mouth to it.
I was too eager to ascertain the contents of the keg and bottle to
continue my search. I therefore carried them down to my sleeping-place,
where I had left the handspike, and there soon broke in the head of the
cask. It contained some small, round, hard and greasy fruit, I eagerly
tasted one. They were olives. I knew this because Mr Butterfield a
few days before gave me some at dessert. I then thought them very
bitter and nasty, but as I saw him eating them I nibbled at two or
three. In the end I liked them rather better than at first, or rather,
I didn't dislike them so much.

Having eaten half-a-dozen, I was very glad that I had found them. They
were at all events a change from rat's flesh. I next took the bottle in
hand, and with my knife scraped away the sealing-wax with which it was
covered. Instead of trying to force out the cork I cut into it until I
had made a hole big enough to insert my fingers, when I pulled it out.
The bottle contained pickles. These, though they would not satisfy
hunger would render the food I was doomed to live upon more palatable
and wholesome. Having put them away in the most secure place I could
think of, I returned to the crate.

By tearing off another plank I found that I could creep inside. It
contained all sorts of things, apparently thrown in before the vessel
began to be loaded to be out of the way, and afterwards forgotten. I
came across two or three old brooms or scrubbing-brushes, a kettle with
the spout broken, several large empty bottles, and other things I cannot
enumerate. At last, when I thought I had turned everything over, my
hand came against another cask, considerably larger than the first. I
dragged it out. It was not so heavy as I should have supposed it would
be from its size. It was too big to carry, so I rolled it along before
me. From the first I fancied it must contain biscuits, but I was almost
afraid to too soon congratulate myself on my good fortune. A few blows
with the handspike shattered the top, and eagerly plunging in my hand,
to my intense satisfaction I drew forth a captain's biscuit. I ate it
at once and thought it deliciously sweet, though it was in reality musty
and mouldy. I had now a store of food to last me for days, and even
weeks, should I not obtain my liberation, provided I used the strictest
economy. All I wanted was fresh air. To obtain that, supposing I could
not work my way out or make