ing to keeping the rooms clean. These and such similar duties must
be performed regularly, so that through their aid the long hours will
pass the more rapidly, until we are able--as I trust we shall about
November, when the snow melts here, I believe, and we can travel--to
start towards the other side of the island, where I hope we'll fetch
some harbour where the whalers touch, and get taken on board and landed
at the Cape or some other civilised spot. But, mind, in order to do
this," he added in conclusion, "we must all work together in harmony;
and, to prevent discord, and all sorts of unpleasantness, we must keep
the men constantly employed--not too onerously, but so that they shall
always have something to do--in order that the weary time of waiting
shall not hang heavy upon them. However, my friends, to encourage them,
you must likewise find something to be busy at for yourselves, as I
shall find for myself! Excuse this little bit of a sermon, gentlemen,"
said Mr Meldrum at the end of his discourse; "but I thought it
necessary to say it, as I've seen the evil of having a lot of men about
me with nothing for them to do on a foreign station before now, and I've
learnt wisdom by experience!"

"True for you, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy, stretching out his brawny
fist; "and there's my hand on it to say I'll attind to your orders, if
it's to holystone the face of that ould cliff there."

"All right, my friend!" said Mr Meldrum, shaking the hand outstretched
cordially. "I see we understand each other; and, believe me, I'll not
be a hard taskmaster."

"I'm certain of that, sir," responded Mr Adams; and the trio then
parted company to carry these arrangements into effect, the first result
of which was that everybody looked more cheerful than they had been
since the completion of the house, after finishing which some dulness
and lassitude had been observable in the men, coupled with a tendency to
idle about and mope.

This soon disappeared now when the first mate and Mr Adams, in
pursuance of Mr Meldrum's directions, made them bustle about here and
there.

They did all sorts of jobs. They scraped the jolly-boat's planking, and
pitched her inside and out; after which they collected all the stray
blocks of basalt they could find and built a "shebeen," as Mr McCarthy
called it, to contain her, and then housed it and her over with all the
spare planks they could get hold of--marching miles along the black
sandy beach