ay was growing colder
and more dark. We knew that the long winter was close upon us, and that
the shadow of the night would soon be resting on us all the time. The
birds had hatched their young, and quitted their nests, and were flying
off to the sunny south, where we so longed to go, and so longed to send
a message by them to the loved ones far away. It made us sad--O, how
very, very sad!--to see the birds so happy on the wing, and sailing off
and leaving us upon the island all alone. Alone,--all, all alone! Alone
upon a desert island in the Frozen Sea! Alone in cold and darkness! All,
all alone!

"We made ourselves warm coats and stockings out of the skins of the
birds that we had caught; and we made caps, too, out of them,--plucking
off the feathers, and leaving only the soft, warm, mouse-colored down
upon the skin. And out of the seal's skin we made mittens and nice soft
boots, or rather, as I might call them, moccasins.

"The birds began to go away about the middle of August, as nearly as we
could tell, but it was more than a month after that before they had all
left the island. Meanwhile we had caught a great number of them,--two
hundred and sixty-six in all; and we had collected, besides, ninety
dozen of their eggs. These birds and eggs were all carefully stowed away
in our storehouses of ice and rocks near the glacier.

"In the matter of food, we had, therefore, done very well; but we felt
the need of some more blubber for our fire, and some warmer clothing
than the birds' skins. To supply this latter want, we tried very hard to
catch some foxes; but it was a long time before we were successful; for
not until all the ducks had gone away would the foxes trouble themselves
to go inside our traps. These traps were made of stones, and in building
them I had derived the only benefit which had ever resulted to me from
my indolent life on the farm. I was always fond of shirking away from my
duties, and going into the woods to set rabbit-traps; and, remembering
how I made them of wood, I easily contrived a stone one of the same
pattern, and it was found afterwards to answer perfectly; for when there
were no longer eggs and ducks for them to eat, the foxes went into our
traps, which we baited with flesh from the dead narwhal. The pelts of
these foxes were thick and warm; and, by the time the weather got very
cold, we had obtained a good number, and of them we made suits of
clothes at our leisure. There were two kinds o