erful bad
fix, Charley."

XII

THE PANGS OF STARVATION

When the first shock at the loss of their boat had passed, youthful
buoyancy of spirit asserted itself, and the two castaways looked more
hopefully upon their position. By eating lightly, Toby declared they
could make a goose last them two days, and thus they had six days'
rations of goose. The other food they would consider another day's
rations. Thus, while they would not have as much to eat by any means as
they might wish, they would do fairly well for a week.

"'Tis the comin' o' winter," prognosticated Toby. "'Tis gettin' frostier
all the time, and when the storm clears 'twill settle down to steady
freezin' day and night. If she does, the bay's like to fasten over soon,
and then we'll be walkin' back to Double Up Cove on the ice, and
couldn't use a boat if we had un."

"How long will it likely be before the bay freezes?" asked Charley
anxiously.

"Soon as the wind stops and she calms down. After she begins freezin'
she'll keep freezin' and ice is like to make fast," Toby explained. "The
ice'll hold us in one or two days after she fastens, whatever, and
there'll be fine footin' then to Double Up Cove."

"Then we're not likely to be here very long, and that's a comfort," said
Charley, much relieved.

"Not so long, I'm thinkin'," agreed Toby.

There was a good deal of driftwood on the island shores, and dead wood
scattered over the island, and upon Toby's suggestion they carried a
quantity of this to the lean-to, and piled it at one side of the big
boulder against which the fire was built. A huge pile was collected to
serve as a reserve supply of fuel, that they might have a-plenty on hand
to serve their needs, should the storm continue for two or three days,
as Toby predicted it would, in which case the dead wood scattered over
the island might be buried so deeply beneath the snow that they could
not reach it.

When Toby deemed the supply of dead wood sufficient, even in case of a
greater emergency than he anticipated, he felled some green trees,
trimmed the branches from the trunks, and cut the logs into convenient
lengths for use upon the fire, and these Charley carried to the lean-to
and piled at the opposite side of the boulder, that either dry or green
wood might be had as desired.

"The green wood's slow to get started," said Toby, "but 'twill burn
longer and keeps a fire longer."

Toby's judgment in collecting a reserve supply of