IN WHICH THE QUESTION OF LODGING¹ IS SOLVED AS WELL AS IT COULD BE.
The day was already far advanced. Godfrey resolved to defer² till the morrow the task of proceeding³ to a new abode⁴. But to the pressing questions which the professor propounded⁵ on the results of his exploration he ended by replying that it was an island, Phina Island, on which they both had been cast, and that they must think of the means of living before dreaming of the means of departing.
 
"An island!" exclaimed Tartlet⁶.
 
"Yes! It is an island!"
 
"Which the sea surrounds?"
 
"Naturally."
 
"But what is it?"
 
"I have told you, Phina Island, and you understand why I gave it that name."
 
"No, I do not understand!" answered Tartlet, making a grimace⁷; "and I don't see the resemblance! Miss Phina is surrounded by land, not water!"
 
[Pg 118]
 
After this melancholy⁸ reflection, he prepared to pass the night with as little discomfort⁹ as possible. Godfrey went off to the reef to get a new stock of eggs and mollusks, with which he had to be contented¹⁰, and then, tired out, he came back to the tree and soon fell asleep, while Tartlet, whose philosophy would not allow him to accept such a state of affairs, gave himself over to the bitterest meditations¹¹. On the morrow, the 28th of June, they were both afoot before the cock had interrupted their slumbers¹².
 
To begin with, a hasty breakfast, the same as the day before. Only water from a little brook¹³ was advantageously replaced by a little milk given by one of the goats.
 
Ah! worthy¹⁴ Tartlet! Where were the "mint julep," the "port wine sangaree," the "sherry cobbler," the "sherry cocktail," which he hardly drank, but which were served him at all hours in the bars and taverns¹⁵ of San Francisco? How he envied the poultry¹⁶, the agouties, and the sheep, who cheerfully quenched¹⁷ their thirst without the addition of such saccharine¹⁸ or alcoholic¹⁹ mixtures to their water from the stream! To these animals no fire was necessary to cook their food; roots and herbs and seeds sufficed, and their breakfast was always served to the minute on their tablecloth²⁰ of green.
 
"Let us make a start," said Godfrey.
 
And behold²¹ the two on their way, followed by a [Pg 119]procession of domestic animals, who refused to be left behind. Godfrey's idea was to explore, in the north of the island, that portion of the coast on which he had noticed the group of gigantic trees in his view from the cone²². But to get there he resolved to keep along the shore. The surf might perhaps have cast up some fragment of the wreck²³. Perhaps they might find on the beach some of their companions in the Dream to which they could give Christian²⁴ burial. As for finding any one of them living, it was hardly to be hoped for, after a lapse²⁵ of six-and-thirty hours.
 
The first line of hills was surmounted²⁶, and Godfrey and his companion reached the beginning of the reef, which looked as deserted²⁷ as it had when they had left it. There they renewed their stock of eggs and mollusks, in case they should fail to find even such meagre resources away to the north. Then, following the fringe of sea-weed left by the last tide, they again ascended²⁸ the dunes²⁹, and took a good look round.
 
Nothing! always nothing!
 
We must certainly say that if misfortune had made Crusoes of these survivors³⁰ of the Dream, it had shown itself much more rigorous towards them than towards their predecessors³¹, who always had some portion of the vessel³² left to them, and who, after bringing away crowds of[Pg 120] objects of necessity had been able to utilize³³ the timbers of the wreck. Victuals³⁴ for a considerable period, clothes, tools, weapons, had always been left them with which to satisfy the elementary exigencies³⁵ of existence. But here there was nothing of all this! In the middle of that dark night the ship had disappeared in the depths of the sea, without leaving on the reefs the slightest traces of its wreck! It had not been possible to save a thing from her—not even a lucifer-match—and to tell the truth, the want of that match was the most serious of all wants.
 
I know well, good people comfortably installed in your easy-chairs before a comfortable hearth³⁶ at which is blazing brightly a fire of wood or coals, that you will be apt to say,—
 
"But nothing was more easy than for them to get a fire! There are a thousand ways of doing that! Two pebbles³⁷! A little dry moss³⁸! A little burnt rag,"—and how do you burn the rag? "The blade of a knife would do for a steel, or two bits of wood rubbed briskly together in Polynesian fashion!"
 
Well, try it!
 
It was about this that Godfrey was thinking as he walked, and this it was that occupied his thoughts more than anything else. Perhaps he too, poking³⁹ his coke fire and reading his travellers' tales, had thought the same as you[Pg 121] good people! But now he had to put matters to the test, and he saw with considerable disquietude the want of a fire, that indispensable element which nothing could replace.
 
He kept on ahead, then, lost in thought, followed by Tartlet, who by his shouts and gestures, kept together the flock of sheep, agouties, goats, and poultry.
 
Suddenly his look was attracted by the bright colours of a cluster of small apples which hung from the branches of certain shrubs⁴⁰, growing in hundreds at the foot of the dunes. He immediately recognized them as "manzanillas," which serve as food to the Indians in certain parts of California.
 
"At last," he exclaimed, "there is something which will be a change from our eggs and mussels."
 
"What? Do you eat those things?" said Tartlet with his customary grimace.
 
"You shall soon see!" answered Godfrey.
 
And he set to work to gather the manzanillas, and eat them greedily.
 
They were only wild apples, but even their acidity⁴¹ did not prevent them from being agreeable. The professor made little delay in imitating his companion, and did not show himself particularly discontented at the work. Godfrey thought, and with reason, that from these fruits there[Pg 122] could be made a fermented⁴² liquor which would be preferable to the water.
 
The march was resumed. Soon the end of the sand dunes died away in a prairie traversed by a small stream. This was the one Godfrey had seen from the top of the cone. The large trees appeared further on, and after a journey of about nine miles the two explorers, tired enough by their four hours' walk, reached them a few minutes after noon.
 
The site was well worth the trouble of looking at, of visiting, and, doubtless, occupying.
 
On the edge of a vast prairie, dotted with manzanilla bushes and other shrubs, there rose a score of gigantic trees which could have even borne comparison with the same species in the forests of California. They were arranged in a semi-circle. The carpet of verdure, which stretched at their feet, after bordering the stream for some hundreds of feet, gave place to a long beach, covered with rocks, and shingle⁴³, and sea-weed, which ran out into the water in a narrowing point to the no............