of reading and investigating
the little library of books given by Celia Brown to Eric, which he had
not yet had the chance of overhauling.

Indeed, Master Fritz had a nice easy time of it; for Eric not only
waited on him, but saw to everything that had to be done until he was
able to move about again.

"That old billy-goat was bound to do me an injury! I thought so when I
first saw him that evening, standing out against the sunset sky over our
heads," said the elder brother to Eric, when he was once more out of
doors and felt again like his old self. "Aha, though, I've not done
with the old rascal yet! Some day, I'll pay him out, never fear!"

"Right you are!" was Eric's answer, laughing the while.

The lad was really so overjoyed to see his brother on his legs again,
that he went off into fits of laughter every now and then about nothing
at all.

He could not contain himself!

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

SEALING.

It was well on in the month of September--the spring of the year in
South Atlantic latitudes--when the brothers commenced their crusoe-like
life on Inaccessible Island; and, by the time that Fritz had recovered
from the effects of his sprained ankle, so far as to be able to hobble
about the place, it was nearly the end of October. This was the
beginning of the early summer at Inaccessible Island; and, the season
being but a short one, not an hour of it could be wasted if they wished
to carry out to advantage the special purpose that had taken them away
from the haunts of men.

The sealing season would soon begin; and, it behoved them to be ready
for it, so that they should lose no chance of securing as many skins as
they could get. The amount of oil they might procure from the boiled-
down blubber was also a consideration, but only a secondary one in
comparison with the pelts; for, owing to the market demand for sealskins
and the wholesale extermination of the animal that supplies them that is
now continually going on in arctic and antarctic seas alike, the pursuit
is as valuable as it is more and more precarious each year--the
breeding-grounds now being almost deserted to what they once were, even
in the most out-of-the-way spots, the Esquimaux to the north and
American whalers in the south having depopulated the whilom numerous
herds.

The garden was the first point Fritz aimed for, when he found he could
put his foot to the ground; and he proceeded thither slowly, with the
aid of a stick