or else we'll
have to be off without it! Here, Harris and Betkins," he sang out to
two of the schooner's men, "go along with these gentlemen in their boat
and bring off some cargo they'll point out to you!"

"I don't think we can stow all in one boat," said Eric.

"Then, we must make two or three trips till we do," answered the other,
equal to the occasion; and this procedure was adopted until all the
brothers' sealskins and barrels of oils were shipped in the schooner.
The goods were consigned to Captain Brown, who had undertaken to dispose
of all the produce of their expedition; and, when the freight was all
shipped, the schooner, filling her sails, bore away from the island on
her return trip to the Cape--not without a hearty farewell to Fritz and
Eric from those on board.

This visit of the little craft cheered them up wonderfully, reconciling
them cheerfully to another year's sojourn in their island home; for, had
not the schooner brought them comfort and hope, and, above all else,
what was to their longing hearts like manna to the Israelites in the
wilderness, water to a dry ground, warmth to those shivering with cold--
in other words, "good news from home?"

Aye, that she had!

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

A DIRE PERIL.

Oh, those dear letters from home!

Did not Fritz pore over them, when he and Eric got back to their little
hut, glad to sit down and be quiet again, all to themselves after the
excitement of the schooner's visit and the fatigue of shipping the
produce of their labours during the past?

Madame Dort's missive was a long, voluminous epistle of ever so many
pages, written in their dear mother's clear hand, without a blot or a
scratch out, or any tedious crossing of the pages to make the writing
indistinct. She had been a teacher, and able to write well, if only
because she had formerly to instruct others? The letter was public
property for both, being addressed to Eric as well as Fritz, and it
contained much loving news--news that caused the elder brother
frequently to pause in his reading and Eric to dash away the quick tears
from his bright eyes; while, anon, it made them both laugh by some funny
allusion to household arrangements as they recalled the well-remembered
little home scene in the old-fashioned house in which the two had been
brought up, in the Gulden Strasse at Lubeck.

The communication was so lengthy that it was almost a journal, Madame
Dort recounting all the haps and m