ce that a month
was passed in setting those eight awning-posts alone. When up, however,
they perfectly answered the purpose, everything having been done in a
thorough, seaman-like manner. At the top of each post, itself a portion
of solid spar, a watch-tackle was lashed, by means of which the sail was
bowsed up to its place. To prevent the bagging unavoidable, in an awning
of that size, several uprights were set in the centre, on end, answering
their purpose sufficiently without boring into the rocks.

Bob was in raptures with the new 'ship-yard.' It was as large as the
mainsail of a ship of four hundred tons, was complete as to shade, with
the advantage of letting the breeze circulate, and had a reasonable
chance of escaping from the calamities of a flood. Mark, too, was
satisfied with the result, and the very next day after this task was
completed, our shipwrights set to work to lay their keel. That day was
memorable on another account. Bob had gone to the Summit in quest of a
tool left there, in fitting up the boat of Mark, and while on the mount,
he ascertained the important fact that the melons were beginning to
ripen. He brought down three or four of these delicious fruits, and Mark
had the gratification of tasting some of the bounties of Providence,
which had been bestowed, as a reward of his own industry and
forethought. It was necessary to eat of these melons in moderation,
however; but it was a great relief to get them at all, after subsisting
for so long a time on salted meats, principally, with no other
vegetables but such as were dry, and had been long in the ship. It was
not the melons alone, however, that were getting to be ripe; for, on
examining himself, among the vines which now covered fully an acre of
the Summit, Mark found squashes, cucumbers, onions, sweet-potatoes,
tomatoes, string-beans, and two or three other vegetables, all equally
fit to be used. From that time, some of these plants were put into the
pot daily, and certain slight apprehensions which Woolston had begun
again to entertain on the subject of scurvy, were soon dissipated. As
for the garden within the crater, which was much the most extensive and
artistical, it was somewhat behind that on the Summit, having been later
tilled; but everything, there, looked equally promising, and Mark saw
that one acre, well worked, would produce more than he and Betts could
consume in a twelvemonth.

It was an important day on the Reef when the keel