he sea!"

"Have you?" exclaimed the other eagerly. "That's good news."

"Is it?" said Eric. "I didn't think you cared about them so much."

"Ah, I'm looking out for their eggs," replied Fritz.

"Why, you never seemed to fancy them last year, old fellow," said the
sailor lad surprised. "What means this change of view on your part?"

"Well, you know, when we arrived here first, the birds were already
sitting; and, I certainly confess I did not care about the eggs then,
for they would probably have been half addled! Now, however, if we look
out each day, we can get them quite fresh, when they'll be ever so much
better. Young Glass told us, as you ought to remember, that they tasted
very nice and not in the least fishy."

"Oh, yes, I recollect," said Eric. "I will keep a good look-out for
them now you say they're worth looking after!"

And he did.

The two male birds, who first came, were succeeded on the following day
by half a dozen more, a large number coming later on the same afternoon.

All these penguins were in their best plumage, and very fat and lazy,
contenting themselves with lolling about the beach for a day or two, as
if to recover from the fatigues of their journey.

Then, after a solemn conference together close to the rookery, the birds
began to prepare their nests, so as to be ready for the reception of the
females, which did not make their appearance for nearly a month after
the first male penguins were seen.

A fortnight later, there was in almost each nest an egg of a pale blue
colour, very round in shape and about the size of a turkey's--the sight
of which much gratified Master Eric, who, fearless of consequences, made
a point of investigating the tussock-grass colony every morning. He
called the birds habitat his "poultry yard," seeming to be quite
unmindful of his mishap there the previous year; although now, as the
penguins had not begun regularly to sit yet, they were not so noisy or
troublesome as when he then intruded on their domain. Besides, as the
sailor lad argued, the eggs were uncommonly good eating, and well worth
risk getting them.

September came; and the brother crusoes were all agog with excitement,
watching for the expected coming of the old Yankee skipper.

"Do you know what to-day is?" asked Fritz one morning, as Eric woke him
up in turning out.

"What a fellow you are for dates!" exclaimed the other. "You ought to
go and live in the East, where they cultivat