To put up with what you cannot avoid is a philosophical4 principle, that may not perhaps lead you to the accomplishment5 of great deeds, but is assuredly eminently6 practical. On this principle Godfrey had resolved to act for the future. If he had to live in this island, the wisest thing for him to do was to live there as comfortably as possible until an opportunity offered for him to leave it.
And so, without delay, he set to work to get the interior of Will Tree into some order. Cleanliness was of the first importance. The beds of dried grass were frequently renewed. The plates and dishes were only scallop shells, it is true, but no American kitchen could show cleaner ones. It should be said to his praise that Professor Tartlet8 was a capital washer. With the help of his knife Godfrey, by flattening9 out a large piece of bark, and sticking four uprights into the ground, had contrived[Pg 156] a table in the middle of the room. Some large stumps10 served for stools. The comrades were no longer reduced to eating on their knees, when the weather prevented their dining in the open air.
There was still the question of clothing, which was of great interest to them, and they did the best they could. In that climate, and under that latitude11, there was no reason why they should not go about half naked; but, at length, trousers, waistcoat, and linen12 shirt were all worn out. How could they replace them? Were the sheep and the goats to provide them with skins for clothing, after furnishing them with flesh for food? It looked like it. Meanwhile, Godfrey had the few garments he possessed13 frequently washed. It was on Tartlet, transformed into a laundress, that this task fell, and he acquitted14 himself of it to the general satisfaction.
Godfrey busied himself specially15 in providing food, and in arranging matters generally. He was, in fact, the caterer16. Collecting the edible17 roots and the manzanilla fruit occupied him some hours every day; and so did fishing with plaited rushes, sometimes in the waters of the stream, and sometimes in the hollows of the rocks on the beach when the tide had gone out. The means were primitive18, no doubt, but from time to time a fine crustacean19 or a succulent fish figured on the table of Will Tree, to say[Pg 157] nothing of the mollusks, which were easily caught by hand.
But we must confess that the pot—of all the pieces in the battery of the cook undoubtedly20 the most essential—the simple iron pot, was wanting. Its absence could not but be deeply felt. Godfrey knew not how to replace the vulgar pipkin, whose use is universal. No hash, no stew21, no boiled meat, no fish, nothing but roasts and grills22. No soup appeared at the beginning of a meal. Constantly and bitterly did Tartlet complain—but how to satisfy the poor man?
Godfrey was busied with other cares. In visiting the different trees of the group he had found a second sequoia23 of great height, of which the lower part, hollowed out by the weather, was very rugged24 and uneven25.
Here he devised his poultry-house, and in it the fowls26 took up their abode27. The hens soon became accustomed to their home, and settled themselves to set on eggs placed in the dried grass, and chickens began to multiply. Every evening the broods were driven in and shut up, so as to keep them from birds of prey28, who, aloft in the branches, watched their easy victims, and would, if they could, have ended by destroying them.
As for the agoutis, the sheep, and the goats, it would have been useless then to have looked out a stable or[Pg 158] a shelter for them. When the bad weather came, there would be time enough to see to that. Meanwhile they prospered29 on the luxuriant pasturage of the prairie, with its abundance of sainfoin and edible roots, of which the porcine representatives showed genuine appreciation30. A few kids had been dropped since the arrival in the island, and as much milk as possible was left to the goats with which to nourish their little ones.
From all this it resulted that the surroundings of Will Tree were quite lively. The well-fed domestic animals came during the warm hours of the day to find there a refuge from the heat of the sun. No fear was there of their wandering abroad, or of their falling a prey to wild beasts, of which Phina Island seemed to contain not a single specimen31.
And so things went on, with a present fairly comfortable perhaps, but a future very disquieting32, when an unexpected incident occurred which bettered the position considerably33.
It was on the 29th of July.
Godfrey was strolling in the morning along that part of the shore which formed the beach of the large bight to which he had given the name of Dream Bay. He was exploring it to see if it was as rich in shell-fish as the coast on the north. Perhaps he still hoped that he might yet[Pg 159] come across some of the wreck2, of which it seemed to him so strange that the tide had as yet brought in not a single fragment.
On this occasion he had advanced to the northern point which terminated in a sandy spit, when his attention was attracted by a rock of curious shape, rising near the last group of algæ and sea-weeds.
A strange presentiment34 made him hasten his steps. What was his surprise, and his joy, when he saw that what he had taken for a rock was a box, half buried in the sand.
Was it one of the packages of the Dream? Had it been here ever since the wreck? Was it not rather all that remained of another and more recent catastrophe35? It was difficult to say. In any case no matter whence it came or what it held, the box was a valuable prize.
Godfrey examined it outwardly. There was no trace of an address not even a name, not even one of those huge initials cut out of thin sheet metal which ornament36 the boxes of the Americans. Perhaps he would find inside it some paper which would indicate the origin, or nationality, or name of the proprietor37? Any how it was apparently38 hermetically sealed, and there was hope that its contents had not been spoiled by their sojourn39 in the sea-water. It was a very strong wooden box, covered with[Pg 160] thick leather, with copper40 corner plates at the angles, and large straps41 all over it.
Impatient as he was to view the contents of the box, Godfrey did not think of damaging it, but of opening it after destroying the lock; as to transporting it from the bottom of Dream Bay to Will Tree, its weight forbade it, and he never gave that a thought.
"Well," said Godfrey to himself, "we must empty it where it is, and make as many journeys as may be necessary to take away all that is inside."
It was about four miles from the end of the promontory42 to the group of sequoias. It would therefore take some time to do this, and occasion considerable
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