ually borne the boat on
its crest from the beach into the woods, and there launched it into the
heart of this bush, which was extremely fortunate; for had it been
tossed against a rock or a tree, it would have been dashed to pieces,
whereas it had not received the smallest injury. It was no easy matter,
however, to get it out of the bush and down to the sea again. This cost
us two days of hard labour to accomplish.

We had also much ado to clear away the rubbish from before the bower,
and spent nearly a week in constant labour ere we got the neighbourhood
to look as clean and orderly as before; for the uprooted bushes and
seaweed that lay on the beach formed a more dreadfully confused-looking
mass than one who had not seen the place after the inundation could
conceive.

Before leaving the subject I may mention, for the sake of those who
interest themselves in the curious natural phenomena of our world, that
this gigantic wave occurs regularly on some of the islands of the
Pacific once, and sometimes twice, in the year. I heard this stated by
the missionaries during my career in those seas. They could not tell me
whether it visited all of the islands, but I was certainly assured that
it occurred periodically in some of them.

After we had got our home put to rights, and cleared of the debris of
the inundation, we again turned our thoughts to paying the penguins a
visit. The boat was therefore overhauled and a few repairs done. Then
we prepared a supply of provisions, for we intended to be absent at
least a night or two--perhaps longer. This took us some time to do;
for, while Jack was busy with the boat, Peterkin was sent into the woods
to spear a hog or two, and had to search long, sometimes, ere he found
them. Peterkin was usually sent on this errand when we wanted a pork
chop (which was not seldom), because he was so active and could run so
wonderfully fast that he found no difficulty in overtaking the hogs; but
being dreadfully reckless, he almost invariably tumbled over stumps and
stones in the course of his wild chase, and seldom returned home without
having knocked the skin off his shins. Once, indeed, a more serious
accident happened to him. He had been out all the morning alone, and
did not return at the usual time to dinner. We wondered at this, for
Peterkin was always very punctual at the dinner-hour. As supper-time
drew near we began to be anxious about him, and at length sallied forth
to searc