d no time to be idle!

Christmas with them passed quietly enough this time. The loss of the
boat and the escape they had of their own lives just preceded the
anniversary, so they felt in no great mood for rejoicing. In addition
to that, the festival had too many painful memories of home, for which
they now longed with an ardent desire that they had not felt in their
first year on the island.

The fact was, that, now the whale-boat was destroyed, they were so
irrevocably confined to the little valley where their hut was planted--
shut in alike by land and sea, there being no chance of escape from it
in any emergency that might arise, save through the unlikely contingency
of some stray passing vessel happening to call in at the bay--that the
sense of being thus imprisoned began to affect their spirits.

This was not all.

Their provisions lately had been diminishing in a very perceptible
manner; so much so, indeed, that there was now no fear of their being
troubled with that superabundance of food which Eric had commented on
when they were taking the inventory of their stores!

But for some flour which Captain Fuller had supplied them with, they
would have been entirely without any article in the farinaceous line
beyond potatoes, their biscuits being all gone. The hams and other
delicate cabin stores Captain Brown had originally given them were now
also consumed; so that, with the exception of two or three pieces of
salt pork still remaining and a cask of beef, they had nothing to depend
on save the produce of their garden and some tea--all their other stores
as well as their coffee and sugar having long since been "expended," as
sailors say.

The months passed by idly enough, with nothing to do, and they watched
for the approach of winter with some satisfaction; for, when that had
once set in, they might look for the return of the _Pilot's Bride_ to
rescue them from an exile of which they were becoming heartily weary.

The penguins departed in April, as before, leaving them entirely
solitary and more crusoe-like than ever, when thus left alone
themselves; and, then, came the winter, which was much sharper than
previously, there being several heavy falls of snow, while the waterfall
froze up down the gorge, hanging there like a huge icicle for weeks.

It was dreary enough, and they hardly needed the wintry scene to make
their outlook worse; but, one bitter morning they made a discovery which
filled them with f