n somehow or other we got our arms around each other's neck, and
we kissed each other's cheeks, and great cataracts of tears came tearing
from each other's eyes; and the first and last unkindness that had come
between us was passed and gone forever.

"'But do you really think,' said the Dean, when he got his voice
again,--'do you really think that, if a ship don't come along and take
us off, we can live here on this wretched little island,--that is, when
the summer goes, and all the birds have flown away, and the darkness and
the cold are on us all the time?'"

"'To be sure we can,' I answered; but, to tell the truth, I had very
great doubts about it, only I thought that this would strengthen up the
Dean; and as I had, by this time, made for myself a better definition to
Job's comforter than a something to go around the neck, I had no idea of
being called by that name any more.

"'I'm glad to hear you say that!' exclaimed the Dean. 'Indeed I am!'

"There was no need to give me such very strong assurance that he was
'glad to hear it,' for his face showed as plain as could be that he was
glad to hear me say anything that had the least hope in it.

"After this the Dean grew quite cheerful. Suddenly he asked, 'Do you
know, Hardy, if this island has a name?'

"Of course I did not know, and told him so.

"'Then I'll give it one right off,' said he; 'I'll call it from this
minute the Rock of Good Hope, and here we'll make our start in life.
It's as good a place, perhaps, to make a start in life as any other; for
nobody is likely to dispute our title to our lands, or molest us in our
fortune-making, which is more than could be said if our lot were cast in
any other place.'

"This vein of conversation brightened me up a little. Indeed, it was
hard to be very long despondent in the presence of the Dean's hopeful
disposition. There was much more said of the same nature, which it is
not necessary to repeat. It is enough for me to tell you that the upshot
of the whole matter was that we came in the end to regard ourselves as
settled on the island, if not for the remainder of our lives, at least
for an indefinite time, and we made up our minds that there was no use
in being gloomy and cast down about it. So from that time forward we
were mostly cheerful, and, though you may think it very strange, were
generally contented.

"This was a great step gained, and when we now came to make an inventory
of our possessions, we did it