fuel proved sound.
Before night came a sudden and decided increase in the fall of snow
rendered it unsafe to move a score of feet from the shelter, and the
boys were thankful for the foresight that had led them to provide for
the emergency.

Comfort and luxury are measured by contrast and comparison. The mail
boat had seemed to Charley bleak and uncomfortable as compared to the
luxurious home he had just left. The cabin at Pinch-In Tickle had
appealed to him as a crude and miserable shelter in contrast to the mail
boat, and he had wondered how the Twigs could exist in a place so barren
of what he had always looked upon as the most necessary conveniences.
But after his experience on the trap boat, and the retreat from the
Duck's Head camp, the Twig home, at Double Up Cove, in all its
simplicity, was accepted by him as possessing every necessary comfort.
Now, in contrast to the buffeting snow and wind which he and Toby had
been fighting all day, even the rough lean-to assumed a cozy atmosphere,
the fire before it blazing cheerily, and the boulder against which the
fire was built reflecting the heat to the farthest corner.

"I never thought a place like this could be so snug," said Charley, when
they had plucked and dressed one of the geese, and after disjointing it
with his sheathknife Toby had put it over the fire to boil in the
kettle, and the two boys lay upon their bough bed basking in the warmth
and sniffing the appetizing odour sent forth from the kettle, while
beyond the fire the snow drifted and the wind whistled.

"'Tis snug now," agreed Toby. "'Tis an easy way o' makin' a place to
bide in when they's no tent."

"Your father always says not to worry," said Charley reflectively. "I
know he's right, and it never helps a fellow any to worry. I'm not going
to worry again. I'm sure the ice will come in time to get us out of
here. When we found the boat was gone I _was_ worried though! I'm
almost glad now we got caught here. When I get home and tell Dad about
it he'll think it was just great!"

"No, as Dad says, 'twill do no good to worry, because worry unsets the
insides of our heads and then that upsets our other insides and we gets
sick," commented Toby. "We're about as well off without the boat as we
would be with un. 'Tis lookin' to me like the start of winter, and if
'tis, I'm thinkin' the bay'll fasten over by the time the storm's over
and before we could be gettin' away with the boat if we had un, and we'd