t a glorious prospect!"

He looked at it as if he half thought it would be transformed under the
power of his intense wish. Then he looked again at the floating fish
and shuddered. Well might he shudder, for they were contemptible little
fish, most of them, with unnaturally large heads, and great staring
eyes, as if they had failed, even in death, to get rid of their surprise
at being caught. With their mouths opened to the uttermost, they seemed
to wish to shout, but couldn't.

"I may as well take them out of the dirty water anyhow," he muttered,
suiting the action to the word, and spreading the fish on the thwart in
front of him. Liking their appearance still less in that position, he
put them on the thwart behind him, and tried to forget them.
Impossible! He might as well have tried to forget his own existence.
At last, after holding out as long as possible, the poor boy made up his
mind to eat a little. Then he thought, "If I could only cook them; oh!
for only one small lump of live coal from the camp fire on--"

The thought was checked abruptly, for he suddenly remembered that he had
a burning-glass in his trousers pocket. He might perhaps be able to
roast them with that--in a somewhat underdone fashion, no doubt--still,
any sort of cooking would be better than none!

It need scarcely be said that the attempt failed. The only results were
a burnt spot or two and a faint odour that served to intensify his
hunger. At last he bit a mouthful out of the back of one of the fish,
chewed it viciously, swallowed it in a hurry, and felt very sick. The
ice was broken, however, and he got on better than he had expected. But
when hunger was appeased, there came gradually upon him the far less
endurable condition of thirst. He really felt as if he should choke,
and once or twice he dipped his baling-dish over the side, but
restrained himself on remembering the journal of the skeleton, wherein
it was recorded that one of the men had gone mad after drinking salt
water.

Towards the afternoon hope was revived in his breast by the appearance
of clouds indicating rain. It came at last, in a soft gentle shower--
far too gentle, indeed, for it could not be collected. What dropped
upon the wooden baling-dish seemed to sink into or evaporate off it.
The few drops that fell upon his patiently protruded tongue served only
to tantalise him. But Watty was not prone to give way to despair; at
least, not to remain in that c