out after eight or ten
months, and new garments had to be made, while repairs never ceased.

Meanwhile, the men were fully occupied each day in hunting seals or
fishing, cutting firewood with the axe they had found in the hut, and in
making their home more comfortable. A door was fitted to the hut; a
wooden partition was put up to cut off more effectually the women's
apartment from that of the men; the open crevices in the walls were
stopped up with moss, and many other improvements were made. A few
nails extracted from the walls of the hut were converted into
fish-hooks, by means of the file which had been found, and Nellie spun
some excellent fishing-lines from flax found growing wild in abundance.
The file also enabled them to strike fire with broken flints picked up
on the shore. The ash of burnt cotton, as the doctor knew, makes good
tinder; so in the public interest, John Mitford agreed to part with the
ragged remains of the cotton shirt he had long worn--quite
unnecessarily--over his woollen jersey. Thus they could afford to let
the fire go out, and were relieved from constant watching, as well as
anxiety in regard to it.

They did not, however, cease their nocturnal vigils, for the hope of
deliverance never died out, though it at last sank very low. Besides
keeping their seal-skin flag flying, they kindled a beacon-fire every
night, to guard and replenish which became the nightly duty of one or
other of the men--watch and watch about--all the time they stayed on the
island.

During the earlier part of each night, however, the beacon-fire was not
watched. It was merely lighted and left for some hours to look after
itself. During this period, after supper, the whole party were wont to
draw round the blazing fire in the hut, and each contributed his or her
share to the entertainment of the social circle. Then it was that
lugubrious John Mitford developed amazing powers of inventive
story-telling, and Joe Slag came out strong with thrilling lifeboat
tales, every word of which Bob Massey corroborated, while Terrence
O'Connor displayed powers of sarcastic criticism of the highest order,
and Tomlin, Black Ned, and the women proved an intensely appreciative
audience. But the latter were not merely listeners. True, Peggy did
nothing for the general good. Having quite exhausted her lungs with
incessant talk during each day, she was fortunately almost incapable of
speech in the evening, but Nellie, who posses