ide fresh meat without a pick o' salt to give it a relish. It
may be weakness perhaps, but--"

"Being the weakness of an old salt," interrupted Christian, "it's
excusable. Now, boys, fall-to with a will. We've got plenty of work
before us, an' can't afford to waste time."

This exhortation was needless. The savoury smell of the roast pig, when
it had been carefully disentombed, might have given appetite to a
seasick man. They ate heartily, and for some time in silence.

The women, however, did not join in the feast at that time. It was the
custom among the Otaheitans that the men should eat first, the women
afterwards; and the mutineers, having become habituated to the custom,
did not see fit to change it. When the men had finished and discussed
the day's proceedings, the remainder of the pig, fruits, and vegetables,
were consumed by the females, among whom, we are bound to state, Sally
was the greatest gourmand.

When pipes were finished, and the digestion of healthy young men had
been thus impaired as far as was possible in the circumstances, the
party went off in several groups about their various avocations.

Among other things removed from the _Bounty_ were a smith's anvil and
bellows, with various hammers, files, etcetera, and a large quantity of
iron-work and copper. One party, therefore, under Young and Williams
the armourer, busied themselves in setting up a forge near their
settlement, and preparing charcoal for the forge fire.

Another party, under Christian, proceeded to some neighbouring rocks,
and there, with sledge-hammer and crowbars, which they used as jumpers,
began the laborious task of boring the solid rock, intending afterwards
to blast, and partly to cut it, into large water-tanks. Quintal
continued the thatching of his hut, in which work his humble wife aided
him effectively. Brown proceeded with the planting operations which he
had begun almost immediately after landing; and the women busied
themselves variously, some in preparing the mid-day meal, some in
gathering fruits and roots for future use, and others in improving the
internal arrangements of their various huts, or in clearing away the
debris of the late feast. As for little Sally, she superintended
generally the work of the home department, and when she tired of that,
went further afield in search of adventures.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

DIVISION OF THE ISLAND--MORALISINGS, MISGIVINGS, AND A GREAT EVENT.

There was no dif