eacon.

The carriage of these bellows to and fro almost daily had been a subject
of great annoyance to the men, owing to their being so much in the way,
and so unmanageably bulky, yet so essential to the progress of the
works, that they did not dare to leave them on the rock, lest they
should be washed away, and they had to handle them tenderly, lest they
should get damaged.

"Now, boys, lend a hand with the forge," cried the smith, hurrying
towards his anvil.

Those who were not busy eating dulse responded to the call, and in a
short time the ponderous _materiel_ of the smithy was conveyed to the
beacon, where, in process of time, it was hoisted by means of tackle to
its place on the platform to which reference has already been made.

When it was safely set up and the bellows placed in position, Ruby went
to the edge of the platform, and, looking down on his comrades below,
took off his cap and shouted in the tone of a Stentor, "Now, lads, three
cheers for the Dovecot!"

This was received with a roar of laughter and three tremendous cheers.

"Howld on, boys," cried O'Connor, stretching out his hand as if to
command silence; "you'll scare the dove from his cot altogether av ye
roar like that!"

"Surely they're sendin' us a fire to warm us," observed one of the men,
pointing to a boat which had put off from the _Smeaton_, and was
approaching the rock by way of _Macurich's Track_.

"What can'd be, I wonder?" said Watt; "I think I can smell somethin'."

"I halways thought you 'ad somethink of an old dog in you," said Dumsby.

"Ay, man!" said the Scot with a leer, "I ken o' war beasts than auld
dowgs."

"Do you? come let's 'ear wat they are," said the Englishman.

"Young puppies," answered the other.

"Hurrah! dinner, as I'm a Dutchman," cried Forsyth.

This was indeed the case. Dinner had been cooked on board the _Smeaton_
and sent hot to the men; and this,--the first dinner ever eaten on the
Bell Rock,--was the second of the memorable events before referred to.

The boat soon ran into the creek and landed the baskets containing the
food on _Hope's Wharf_.

The men at once made a rush at the viands, and bore them off exultingly
to the flattest part of the rock they could find.

"A regular picnic," cried Dumsby in high glee, for unusual events, of
even a trifling kind, had the effect of elating those men more than one
might have expected.

"Here's the murphies," cried O'Connor, staggering over the sli