our heart's content," he replied; "but, I
fancy it will puzzle even your lofty intellect to discover the
wherewithal to make clothes with--that is, except sailcloth, which would
be rather cold wear for winter, I think, eh, Master Schneider?"

"How about those two last sealskins we didn't salt down, or pack up with
the rest in the puncheon?" enquired Fritz with a smile.

"O-oh!" exclaimed Eric, opening his mouth wide with wonder.

"A-ah," rejoined his brother. "I think they'll do very well to make a
couple of good coats for us; they'll be warm and serviceable."

"Of course they will," said Eric, jumping at the idea. "And, they will
be fashionable too! Why, sealskin jackets are all the rage in Berlin
and Hanover; so, we'll be regular dandies!"

"Dandies of the first water, oh yes," replied Fritz quizzingly. "I
wonder what they would think of us at, Lubeck if they could just see us
now!"

"Never mind, brother, we'll astonish them when we go back with our
pockets full of money," said Eric in his happy fashion; and then,
without further delay, the two set to work making themselves winter
garments, as Fritz had suggested, from the sealskins.

These had been dried, instead of being salted down with the rest, in the
ordinary way whalers preserve them for the furriers; so, now, all that
remained for the brothers to do was to make the skins limp and pliable.

This they managed to effect by rubbing grease over the inner surface of
the skins with a hard piece of lava slab selected from the volcanic
debris at the foot of the cliff, in the same way, as Eric explained,
that sailors holystone the decks of a ship; and, after the pelts of the
seals were subjected to this process, they underwent a species of
tanning by being steeped in a decoction of tea leaves, keeping, however,
the hair out of the liquor. Lastly, the outside portion of the skins
was dressed by pulling off the long fibrous exterior hairs, concealing
the soft fur below that resembled the down beneath a bird's rough
feathers.

The skins being now thoroughly prepared, all that remained to do was to
cut out the coats, a feat the crusoes accomplished by using their old
garments for patterns; and then, by the aid of the useful little
housewife which Celia Brown had given Eric, after an immense amount of
stitching, the brothers were able at last to clothe themselves in a
couple of fur jackets. These, although they were perhaps roughly made,
the good people at ho