rs.

Full of these discoveries we returned to our encampment. On the way we
fell in with the traces of some four-footed animal, but whether old or of
recent date none of us were able to guess. This also tended to raise our
hopes of obtaining some animal food on the island, so we reached home in
good spirits, quite prepared for supper, and highly satisfied with our
excursion.

After much discussion, in which Peterkin took the lead, we came to the
conclusion that the island was uninhabited, and went to bed.

CHAPTER VII.

Jack's ingenuity--We get into difficulties about fishing, and get out of
them by a method which gives us a cold bath--Horrible encounter with a
shark.

For several days after the excursion related in the last chapter we did
not wander far from our encampment, but gave ourselves up to forming
plans for the future and making our present abode comfortable.

There were various causes that induced this state of comparative
inaction. In the first place, although everything around us was so
delightful, and we could without difficulty obtain all that we required
for our bodily comfort, we did not quite like the idea of settling down
here for the rest of our lives, far away from our friends and our native
land. To set energetically about preparations for a permanent residence
seemed so like making up our minds to saying adieu to home and friends
for ever, that we tacitly shrank from it and put off our preparations,
for one reason and another, as long as we could. Then there was a little
uncertainty still as to there being natives on the island, and we
entertained a kind of faint hope that a ship might come and take us off.
But as day after day passed, and neither savages nor ships appeared, we
gave up all hope of an early deliverance and set diligently to work at
our homestead.

During this time, however, we had not been altogether idle. We made
several experiments in cooking the cocoa-nut, most of which did not
improve it. Then we removed our goods, and took up our abode in the
cave, but found the change so bad that we returned gladly to the bower.
Besides this we bathed very frequently, and talked a great deal; at least
Jack and Peterkin did,--I listened. Among other useful things, Jack, who
was ever the most active and diligent, converted about three inches of
the hoop-iron into an excellent knife. First he beat it quite flat with
the axe. Then he made a rude handle, and tied the hoop