ucculent.

"At any rate, we won't starve," said Henry, "though it would be hard to
live on fish alone, and besides it's not healthy."

"But we'll get something else," said Paul.

"What else?"

"I don't know, but I notice when we keep on looking we're always sure to
find."

"You're right, Paul. It's a good thing to have faith, and I'll have it,
too. But we can eat fish for several meals yet, and then see what will
happen."

They devoted the morning to a thorough washing and cleaning of their
clothing, which they dried in the sun, and they also made a further
examination of the oasis. The swamp came up to its very edge on all
three sides except that of the brook, and a little distance beyond the
brook it was swamp again. It would have been hard to imagine a more
secluded and secure retreat, and Henry dismissed from his mind the
thought of immediate pursuit there by the Indians. Their present
problems were those of food and shelter.

"I think," he said, "that we ought to build a bark hut. There's a
natural site between the four big trees which will be the corners of
our house, and the ground is just covered with the kind of bark we
want."

In the warm sunshine and with a clear sky above them they seemed to have
no need of a house, but all of them knew how quickly the weather could
change in the great valley. It would be hard to stand a fierce storm on
the oasis, and one of the secrets of the great and continued success of
the five was to prepare for every emergency of which they could think.

Long practice had given them high skill, and four of them set to work
with their tomahawks to build a hut of bark and poles, working swiftly,
dextrously and mostly in silence, while Silent Tom went back to the
fishing. They toiled that day and at least half the night with poles and
bark, and by noon the next day they had finished a little cabin, which
they were sure would hold, with the aid of the great trees, against
anything. It had a floor of poles smoothed with dead leaves, one small
window and a low door, over which they purposed to hang blankets if a
blowing rain came.

Throughout their hard labors they had an abundance of fish, but nothing
else, and they not only began to long for other food, but health
demanded it as well.

"Ef Long Jim Hart offers fish to me, ag'in," said the shiftless one,
"I'll take it an' cram it down his own throat."

"And then how'll you live?" asked Paul.

"I think I'll take Long Jim h