satisfied him that
it was too badly injured to be repaired with the means at his command,
and so with all his energy he set himself at once to making himself as
comfortable as the conditions and the surroundings would permit.

First he scoured the island for wood, for he knew that presently the
storm and blizzard would rise to such proportions as to render any
efforts to find wood impossible, and any attempt to move about perilous,
and therefore no time must be lost.

In a little while he succeeded in collecting a considerable amount of
driftwood, and when he turned his attention to other things he had the
consolation of knowing that the gale would sweep the snow from the rocks
and into the sea, and that any wood that he had overlooked in his
search, or had no time now to gather, would be left uncovered, where he
could find it when the blizzard was past and he could go abroad again.

He piled his fuel by the side of a big, high, smooth-faced bowlder which
he had purposely chosen because of its location, not far from the place
where he had been driven ashore, and on the lee side of the island. The
smooth face of this bowlder looked toward the water, and with its back
toward the wind it offered a fairly good wind-break, and a considerable
drift had already formed against its face, or sheltered, side, where the
snow lodged as it was driven in swirling gusts around its ends or swept
over its top.

When his wood was gathered, Bobby with much effort dragged the boat to
the rock, and then working hard and fast cleared away the snow as best
he could with the aid of sticks and feet from the smooth rock bed in
front of the bowlder, and on which the bowlder rested. He now carried
from the innumerable stones lying about upon the wind-swept rocks,
sufficient to build at right angles to the bowlder two rough walls about
two feet high and as long as the width of the boat. These walls were
perhaps eight feet apart, and when they were finished he raised the
boat, bottom up, upon them, the after part of the boat resting upon one,
the prow extending over the other, and the side of the boat shoved back
flush against the bowlder face.

Thus he made for himself a covered shelter, and the front of this he
enclosed with other stones, save for a space three feet wide in the
center, which he reserved for a door. From low spruce bushes--for there
were no trees on the island--he now gathered a quantity of brush and
arranged it under the boat