rds to
come back.

"I had not long to wait, for in a few minutes two of them returned, and,
without appearing to mind at all the trap that I had set for them,
crawled upon their nests so quickly that it seemed as if they were
mightily afraid their eggs would get cold. Seeing a third one coming, I
waited for her too, and the fourth one came soon afterwards; and indeed,
by this time, nearly all the birds that had their nests near by had come
back to them. As soon as all was quiet, I pulled my strings one after
another as quickly as I could, and three of the birds were caught; but
the last one was too smart for me, as the noise made by the others had
startled her, and the heavy stone only struck her tail as she went
squalling and fluttering away, frightening off all the other ducks that
were anywhere near.

"I was not long, as you may be sure, in securing my three prizes; and I
carried them at once up to the fire near which the Dean was lying under
my overcoat in the sun. Soon after this the Dean awoke, and, when he saw
what I had done, seemed to be much amused, as he declared that I had
stolen his patent; but when he saw what kind of a line I had made, he
was filled with admiration, saying: 'Well, who would ever have thought
of that? I'm sure I never should.'

"Being now very tired, I lay down while the Dean took his 'turn'; and by
the time my eyes were opened again he had caught seven birds, so that we
had now in all ten,--enough, probably, to last us as many days. This, of
course, gave us a great deal of satisfaction, especially as we soon had
one of them nicely cooked, and thus got a good breakfast.

"We had now been, you see, several days on the island, and we felt that
we had done pretty well already towards providing for ourselves. The
Dean, as I ought to have mentioned before, had grown in strength very
rapidly during the last forty-eight hours; and except that his head was
still sore from the cut and bruise, he was entirely well.

"We felt now that, whatever else might happen to us, we could not want
for food, as, besides the eggs, we could have as many ducks as we
pleased to catch. We had succeeded in making a fire, and had abundant
means to keep it burning. There were only two things that seriously
troubled us. One was our lack of shelter, if a storm should come; and
the other, our lack of proper clothing, if the weather should grow cold.
But, having succeeded so well thus far, we were very hopeful for the