d o' fish. It's my opinion that if we go on
eatin' fish like we've bin doin' since we was cast away here, we will
turn into fish, or mermaids, if not somethin' worse. What are ye
laughin' at?"

"At the notion o' you turnin' into a _maid_ of any sort," replied
Stubbs.

"That's got nothin' to do wi' the argiment," returned Grummidge sternly,
for his anxieties were too serious to permit of his indulging in levity
at the time. "What we've got to do is to find meat, for them auks are
nigh as dry as the fish. _Meat_, lad, meat, wi' plenty o' fat, that's
the question o' the hour."

"Yes, it's _our_ question, no doubt," rejoined Stubbs.

He might as well have bestowed his bad pun on a rabbit, for Grummidge
was essentially dense and sober-minded.

"But we've had a few rabbits of late, an' ducks an' partridges," he
added.

"Rabbits! ducks! partridges!" repeated his companion, with contempt.
"How many of them delicacies have we had? That's what I wants to know."

"Not many, I admit for there's none of us got much to boast of as
shots."

"Shots!" echoed Grummidge. "You're right, Stubbs. Of all the blind
bats and helpless boys with the bow, there's not I believe, in the whole
world such a lot as the popilation of Wagtail Bay. Why, there's not two
of ye who could hit the big shed at sixty paces, an' all the fresh meat
as you've brought in yet has bin the result o' chance. Now look 'ee
here, Stubbs, a notion has entered my head, an' when a notion does that,
I usually grab that notion an' hold 'im a fast prisoner until I've made
somethin' useful an' ship-shape of 'im. If it works properly we'll soon
have somethin' better to eat than fish, an' more substantial than
rabbits, ducks, partridges, or auks."

We may remark in passing that the animals which those wrecked sailors
called rabbits were in reality hares. Moreover, the men took an easy,
perhaps unscientific, method of classifying feathered game. Nearly
everything with wings that dwelt chiefly on lake, river, or sea they
called ducks, and all the feathered creatures of the forest they styled
partridges. From this simple classification, however, were excepted
swans, geese, eagles, and hawks.

"Well, Grummidge, what may be your notion?" asked Stubbs.

"My notion is--seals! For all our hard rowin' and wastin' of arrows
we've failed to catch or kill a single seal, though there's such swarms
of 'em all about. Now this is a great misfortin', for it's well known